


He Never Went Home

by TheShadowedMind



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Jungle Fury
Genre: F/M, M/M, This fic jumps the shark page zero, You Have Been Warned, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-20 00:30:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 29
Words: 86,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18981502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheShadowedMind/pseuds/TheShadowedMind
Summary: In a world where Casey Rhodes was never supposed to exist, created by the Demon Queen Bansheera to destroy the Power Rangers, he ends up raised by Rangers and their allies. When he loses his home, he finds himself in Ocean Bluff, making pizzas and fighting a battle he never really wanted to be a part of.Mostly follows the series in the middle, reinterprets it to fit the tweaks I made to Casey and the world around him. Mostly I just love this series and wanted to play in its sandbox. This fic jumps the shark before it begins, and just keeps jumping.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to thank Lisatelramor and Queenvernage over on Tumblr. Lisatelramor, thank you for keeping me writing even when after a few years of poking at this it felt like it would never end. It took four years to write this nonsense, but hey, did it! And Queenvernage, thank you for helping with fandom lore and just generally letting a random person on the internet pick your brain about a fandom I love.
> 
> Additionally, thank you to other fic authors like Cmar, Dagmar Buse, Tsukino Akume and all the other Power Rangers fic writers who have written things I've loved very much. I hope my nonsense contribution comes even close to your amazing works.

1.

Andros held the small body in his arms gently, cradling it to his chest as he walked the halls of the Megaship. Wisps of golden hair tickled at his arms beyond the blanket he had wrapped the boy in, but he didn’t look down to see it. His eyes were vacant, staring ahead of himself without seeing where he was going.

His strides were strong, and had he not been down this hall four times already one could have called them purposeful. The child was awake, he knew, still and silent as though sleeping its eyes stared into him. Eyes scarred only by their existence in the universe.

“Andros.”

Zhane’s voice came from behind him, and he found himself turning toward it without conscious effort. “What?”

“You’ve got to stop,” Zhane said, taking two steps forward and taking the child from his arms. He slid the boy into the crook of one arm, laying his other hand on Andros’s shoulder. “No one will defend him better than Karone can. Besides, the threat is on Earth, not KO35. They won’t be able to find him.”

“But,” Andros protested, not really knowing what he could say to argue.

Zhane sighed and stepped forward, half hugging Andros while holding the baby safely out of reach. “Even if Ryan opens the underworld again, he might not get Carter back safely. Come on Andros, what other choice do we have?”

Andros’s head fell on Zhane’s shoulder. He let the familiar feel and smell of his partner wash over him. Comfort that he found he needed more than he had realized.

Earlier that day he and Zhane had responded to a general distress call from Lightspeed Rescue. Their Zords were down, Standing Stones had been erected in the middle of the city, and while they were fighting bravely they had lost both Ryan and Carter early in the fight. Leaving the local rangers to fight the endless bat-creatures that were everywhere they had run into the temple just in time to see Carter fall into the pit with the evil of the year. Some demon mother or other from another dimension. One where Zordon’s wave of good energy couldn’t reach.

“I thought it was over,” he muttered into Zhane’s shoulder. “I killed Zordon, and the evil is still coming.”

Zhane went still, his arm gripping a little tighter. The silence of the hall, only a few beeps from DECA to disturb them, seemed to grow around them. But after a long moment of thought, Zhane spoke. “Maybe there will always be evil,” Zhane said. “But that can’t stop us from doing what’s right.”

“But what is right in this case, Zhane?” Andros asked, shoving away from him and turning away. “That child was created by the demon.”

“He’s Carter and Ryan’s son!” Zhane replied loudly, cradling the still silent, wide-eyed child to his chest. “Ryan asked that we protect him!”

“Is it though?” Andros asked, turning to glare at both blonde heads. “It was created by evil. It wasn’t born!”

“That doesn’t mean he has to become a bad person!” Zhane said firmly, staring Andros down and holding the boy closer, shifting him so his head was on Zhane’s shoulder. “Andros, that’s why we have to make sure Karone can help him. I know you want your sister to be safe, but he could be a powerful ranger someday!”

“Or he could be the evil that destroys us all!” Andros spat back, bracing himself against the grey wall with one hand. “He’s already connected to the grid, there’s no telling what he could do.”

Zhane scrubbed a hand over his face, taking a deep breath. “What other choice do we have? We can’t kill him, he’s a baby. If we leave him with a non-ranger evil will find him.”

“I know.” Andros said quietly. “But it only took a few years for evil to return in force. First in far reaches of the universe, now back on Earth? If it’s so very easy for it to grow, how could anyone save him from his fate?”

As if the child had understood, he turned his face to stare at Andros. Yellow-brown eyes stared through him, as if they were seeing his soul. Andros shivered, leaning closer to the wall.

“We’re Rangers.” Zhane said. “It’s what we do. Come on, Karone is waiting. She’s excited about meeting him, wants to know the extent of his powers. Don’t ruin his chance before he has it.”

Andros took a deep breath and straightened, eyes clearer than they had been since he saw Carter fall into the fires of the demon dimension. Without a word he held out his arms, taking back the child that was sucking on its fist. It seemed so harmless, a far cry from the demons, aliens and monsters that Andros had faced throughout his life. Holding the boy in his arms, Andros could almost believe that it would end up alright.


	2. Chapter 2

2.

Casey woke to his mother practicing her magic, as she usually did. Discipline was key, as he had learned when he was two years old and was nearly blasted away by her practice. He had learned to sit on the sidelines and watch as the lightning crackled up her arms, or sparkles shimmered around her as she teleported, or healed, or even created projections for him to chase. Things called butterflies, or cats, or dogs. She told him they were from his home planet, a place he’d been evacuated from because monsters were after him. Just like they had taken mommy, and turned her into an evil enchantress.

To his memory he had never seen anyone but mommy, Uncle Zhane and Uncle Andros. When he asked if there was no one else, mommy had told him that he was a powerful child, and that he had to learn to control his powers before he could see people, just like her. But no matter how he tried, he couldn’t make magic run over his skin as she did. He couldn’t feel the power in the air, though in his bones he could often feel a tingling. It had been particularly bad when he was five. Uncle Andros had held him through a particularly bad spell that made his limbs seize up. “It’ll be okay,” he had whispered, kissing his forehead.

Faintly he had heard mommy talking with Uncle Zhane about a grid, and the battle happening on Earth. “A red fell today,” Uncle Zhane said, “might not survive. I think he feels it.”

But the pain had passed, and though it was only a year later that Uncle Andros had to go on a “suicide mission,” as Uncle Zhane had called it, and the buzzing became horrible again, he found he could handle it better. As years passed the buzz became less, and at seven years old he could barely feel it at all.

“Have you done your stretches?” Mommy asked, seeing he was awake and watching her. Her voice was soft and musical, shimmering against the blue creature that swam around her when she was content. Others couldn’t see it, he had learned that when he mentioned it to Uncle Andros and everyone freaked out. They had tested him for hallucinations, only to find it was just a part of who he was.

“No,” he said shyly, ducking his head and wringing his hands behind his back.

“Come on then,” she said with a warm smile, standing from the lotus pose she was sitting in and gently grabbing his hand. She led him over to the grass beneath the tree, the shade from their house cooling the area along with a warm breeze. “Let’s do it together.”

Together they reached for the sky, arched like rainbows and twisted themselves in half. They balanced on one foot, then the other, movements in sync from years of practice. Their breathing, in, out, flowed easily and though today was just another day in a long line of days, Casey found himself relaxing. The movement soothed him, and without thinking a piece of himself just, let go.

Neither flinched as a tiger started wandering around them as they moved. It was larger than any animal Casey had ever seen, though it did look a lot like a cat. He wished he could examine it, play with it, hug it even. But he knew as soon as they stopped moving, it would go away.

When their exercises ended, it did just that, pawing over to Casey and merging with him seamlessly. This didn’t stop him from poking at his chest, trying to find where it entered. Mommy just laughed, taking his hand in her own and crouching in front of him. “Well done, Casey,” she said, her eyes sparkling with laughter. “You’re becoming very strong.”

That was his last memory of his mother.

 

He couldn’t remember how he left home. He went to bed that night, warm in the knowledge that he had gained some control over his power. His mother had probably kissed his forehead before he went to sleep, she always had before then. She had probably tucked him in, and placed shimmering wards around his bed to keep him safe from night creatures. She had probably read him a book, and stayed in his room until he was snoring.

But he couldn’t remember whether she had the night he was taken. All he remembered was a rush of heat, shudders from his closet, something being _wrong_ , and suddenly he wasn’t home anymore.


	3. Chapter 3

3.

Casey lay on the ground with his eyes staring blankly at the sky. Stars shone above him, strange stars. Stars of a different world, Earth. He wasn’t sure how he had gotten here, only that he was no longer home. The sandy ground was soft against his back, cool in the night where it had burned his feet that afternoon. He was alone, though how he had come to be that way he couldn’t say for sure.

It had been a terribly long day, and all he wanted was to lie there and sleep. He was thirsty and hungry, and wanted his mom. This world was too noisy, there were people and their animals everywhere. He had thought he and his mother were special, but it seemed everyone on this world had creatures that could pop out of them at any time. It also seemed as though people couldn’t see them here any more than they could back home. His sole comfort was that Uncle Andros and Uncle Zhane knew Earth well. They would find him, even if it took a while.

Sighing and rolling to his feet, he started walking again. He could see artificial light in the distance, a sight he knew from his mother’s lessons. Earth, a planet where humans feared the dark so much they lit every corner they could afford to, and then some. In a daze he wandered toward a quiet area in the noise, though still within the area of light that would contain people. People, however many and dangerous seeming, meant food and water. Life.

The nearest light was a ways from what had to be a city. There was too much light for it not to be. The air tasted funny as well, though clearly there was greenery in that direction despite the desert conditions. He could smell wrongness in the air beyond that alone, but brushed it off as Earth air. Perhaps it was inherently bad.

As he neared the light, he found himself at a small shack surrounded by trees that had leaves only on top. It was half open, a widow that started just above his head. The shack was surrounded by chairs and next to an unnatural, smelly pool of water. There was also a very large man with a lazy looking panda lumbering after him was folding the chairs and pulling down large, circular cloth umbrellas that were planted in the middle of tables.

“Hello?” Casey called hesitantly, “do you speak English?”

“Ahh!” the man jumped, crashing to the ground with a pile of chairs on top of him, one or two skidding over to the water.

Casey stood still for a moment, blinking at him before realizing he was projecting the tiger again in his nervousness. Taking a deep breath, he summoned it back into himself and walked over to the man. “I’m sorry,” he said perfunctorily, offering a hand. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

The man struggled to his feet, backing away. “Are you an alien?” he asked, holding his hands in front of himself, as if trying to defend himself.

“No,” Casey replied, letting his hand fall to his side. “I’m a human. I’m from Earth. Mommy said so!”

To his surprise, the man relaxed. “Oh,” he said instead, brushing himself off and smiling a large, goofy looking grin. “Well, I’m Farkas Bulkmier, owner of this establishment. What’s your name, definitely human person who has a tiger that can come out of him?”

Casey took his hand, smiling brightly as the panda came over and nudged him with its nose. “Casey, my name’s Casey.”

The man nodded, a motion that made the top of his body move. “What’s your last name?”

Casey frowned, looking down at the sand. “I don’t have one.”

“Huh,” the man said, seeming at a loss for words. After a long moment however, he switched his grip on Casey’s hand and half-dragged him over to the shack with a window. “Well then, Casey with no last name, would you like something to eat?”

“Yes please,” Casey said, smiling again.

With a flourish, the man grabbed one of the chairs and unfolded it before setting Casey on it. “What would you like to eat then? Nothing but Bulkmiers’s finest for you my young friend, just say the word and I’ll make it.”

Casey blinked, “I don’t know, I’ve never had Earth food before. Mommy always told me stories about s’mores though. She says they’re the sweetest food in the galaxy, ‘cause of the smallows.”

The man seemed a little tenser, but smiled easily nonetheless. “Well, I don’t have any marshmallows, but we do make a mean burger!”

Casey frowned to himself, but decided the man seemed to think that was a good thing. So he watched as he grilled patties of dead animals, added pureed things on top and boiled pale, starchy things in oil. It was quite a show, as he nearly burned himself several times, and jumped back dramatically at the splattering oil, making Casey laugh.

After fifteen or so minutes, the man plopped a plate on a table that he dragged in front of Casey. As Casey began to eat, he asked, “Where are your parents?”

Casey swallowed a bite of the sandwich, eyes wide at the strange flavor. “Mommy’s at home, on KO35. Uncle Andros and Uncle Zhane are probably looking for me. They’ll find me soon.” He took another bite, hoping his nervousness was hidden well enough.

At the names, the man went still. “What’s your mother’s name?” he asked seriously.

Casey shrugged, “Uncle Andros calls her Karone, and Uncle Zhane sometimes calls her Astrea. Not sure why really. But I just call her mommy.”

The man sighed, putting his elbows on the fable and interlacing his fingers. “I see. Where will you stay until then?”

Casey shrugged again. “Over there, where the light isn’t,” he said, gesturing over toward the sand. “It’s nicer. Not so loud.”

“Didn’t grow up around many people, then?” the man asked.

“No.” Casey said, trying the deep fried starchy vegetable. Then another. It was a rich food, but he found he couldn’t dislike it.

“Well then, how about you come live with me until your family shows up?” the man said brightly, “I live on the edge of town, not a terribly nice house, but better than sleeping with scorpions and snakes.”

Casey stopped, mid-chew, looking the man up and down considering. He seemed sincere in his offer, and had reacted to Uncle’s names. The tipping point, however, came when the panda came up behind him and gave him a hug. It was gentle, but surrounded him with warmth. A small smile forced its way onto his face. “Okay,” he said shyly. “I think I would like that.”


	4. Chapter 4

4.

No one came. Uncle Bulk, as Casey came to call the man, was kind and shared what he had, little though it was, liberally. He gave Casey the makeshift bed that he had, and slept on the floor. He shivered with cold, having given Casey all the blankets, and even though he seemed very poor he went out the next day and bought new clothes for him, and sandals so the bottom of his feet wouldn’t burn.

In return, Casey tried very hard to be helpful around. He still stretched every day, and made his way through the exercises that his mother had taught him. But added to that, he cleaned Uncle Bulk’s house, discovering that with the clutter under control and dishes done there was a remarkable amount of room in his two room and a bathroom house. Together they hit the streets to find unwanted furniture. When that failed Uncle Bulk called a friend of his, a lean and very loud man that he simply called Spike. The man happily helped them buy a mattress and extra blankets, all the while exclaiming over how strange it was for “Bulky” to be a father. Odd though they both were, Casey found himself laughing more than he had since he left home as their personalities bounced off each other with peculiar affection. Uncle Spike didn’t have a visible animal often, and when he did it was a thin, spotted snake that liked to curl up on the Panda’s arm. Casey found himself relaxing, and wondering if it was really so bad that his family hadn’t found him yet.

For the first few weeks, he cried himself to sleep. The lack of wards around him made it impossible for his sleep to be peaceful. His cries were silent, and it wasn’t until he had been there a month that Uncle Bulk realized that something was wrong.

When he heard of their nightly routine, Uncle Bulk went out and bought four lights that he plugged in around the room. They turned on magically when the light was gone, to protect him, just like his mommy had. At night, he began to stay up with Casey, telling him stories of the Power Rangers, and how he had known them. How they had saved him, and most of all how they had saved the Earth.

Some of the stories were funny, like the time that Uncle Bulk and Uncle Spike had enslaved monsters for months on end and somehow didn’t end up dead. Then there was the time that they were chased by Frankenstein’s monster, or the time they crashed under the bed of some Power Rangers (though, of course neither had known it at the time). Casey also enjoyed the story of how they had both been turned into chimpanzees, and the tales of boot camp, football and all the strange friends his Uncles had. His favorite was the story about the dream Uncle Bulk and Uncle Skull both shared that they could be heroes, and fight the monsters themselves, even if their jealousy did lead to them trying to show the world who the Power Rangers really were.

The stories made him smile, but beneath it all he could hear a melancholy in Bulk’s voice that made his stomach twinge. As if somehow, those times were deeply missed. A loneliness pervaded the last word of each tale, and the Panda would pat his uncle on the head before rejoining with him.

But during the day Uncle Bulk never seemed lonely. During the day he worked at his grill, feeding people and listening to their stories. Uncle Skull came by several times a week unless Uncle Bulk said otherwise, and Casey found himself enjoying the unending flow of people. He got used to ignoring the animals that were everywhere, and learned how to talk with the customers. He soon found he could pass the time seating people, telling them the specials and then letting waiters take over from there. It was a fine time, though the weather was too hot, and he missed home fiercely.

But one day, as what Uncle Bulk called “school” was about to start, two men came to the restaurant. One had a terrifying Falcon that flew around him, always alert. The man himself buzzed with a strange energy that made Casey feel strange, a humming in his bones he hadn’t felt for years. Otherwise he just looked like a biker, spiked hair and a leather jacket. The other, an asian-looking man with short hair and brown clothes, had a frog, though it was too still and serious to be a frog. Both wore grim expressions, and spoke in hushed tones. The sort of voices that Casey had learned from Uncle Andros and Uncle Zhane that meant interesting things were being said. So he wandered over toward the table, listening intently while pretending to ignore them as best he could.

“I’m sorry to ask you out here on such short notice,” the spiky headed one said seriously. “I’m afraid there’s trouble on KO35. They were attacked by unknown alien hostiles and Carter and Ryan’s son was taken.”

“The one that Bansheera created?” the frog-related man asked, “Tommy, why would aliens want the “son” of the demon queen?” Casey wasn’t sure what the fingers in the air meant, but he assumed it wasn’t good.

Tommy, apparently, shook his head. “I doubt it was about that at all, nobody knew that we sent the child to KO35. It was probably an attempt to take out Astronema, she isn’t very popular among her old friends. Like Serpenterra, some of them survived Zordon’s death. Andros and Zhane were pretty badly hurt during the attack on the capital as well, so it could be against rangers in general. Either way, Adam, we need to find the boy.”

“Do we even know if he’s on Earth?” Adam asked, sounding both skeptical and as if he were agreeing. “It’s a big galaxy, and he could be anywhere by now.”

Tommy shook his head, looking down at his glass of water. “The Aquitian Rangers are searching their sector as best they can. The Astro Rangers have reassembled on the Megaship, they’re doing their best with two of their number incapacitated. Even Carter and Ryan are looking, though Carter’s still unable to walk, and suffering flashbacks.” He took a long drink, shaking his head again. “It’s a long shot, I know. But if you and Rocky could keep an ear out for anything, I’d appreciate it.”

“Of course,” Adam said immediately, offering a hand that Tommy grasped warmly. “We’ll keep looking.” Smiling at each other, they signaled for a waiter.

To Casey’s surprise, Uncle Bulk came out of the shack and walked over to their table. He seemed nervous, hesitant around both of them. But his face had a large grin painting it. “Gentlemen,” he said, “what’ll it be?”

The two men greeted Bulk as an old friend of sorts, both slightly on their guard. It seemed normal enough, until Tommy stood and under guise of a hug asked that Bulk might meet with them later. Casey slipped away as Uncle Bulk nodded cautiously.

He ran to the shack and curled up in a corner, usually used for smoke breaks when they had smokers on staff. Uncle Andros and Uncle Zhane hurt? KO35 under attack? People were looking for him after all? It was too much to process, and so he sat there and cried, silently and painfully until Bulk returned.

“You okay little buddy?” Uncle Bulk asked, finding him. “Did you hear Tommy talking or something?”

Casey nodded, sniffling. “He, he said Uncles are hurt.”

“Don’t worry about them,” Uncle Bulk said dismissively, “they’re Power Rangers, they know what they’re doing.”

Casey looked up, sharply. “Power Rangers? The ones in your stories?”

“Some of them,” Uncle Bulk agreed, standing and moving back to the grill as he spoke. “There are a _lot_ of Power Rangers.”

“Can the Power Rangers get me home?” Casey asked, standing and walked over, eyes bright and pleading.

Uncle Bulk hesitated, flipping some burgers and starting some fries before answering. “I think you can ask them,” he said. “If you come with me tonight, you’ll have a chance.”

Casey threw his arms around Bulk, his tiny arms not reaching even halfway around. Bulk smiled at him, but he could tell that something more was to be said.

 

That night, he followed Uncle Bulk to a nearby hotel restaurant. It was nice, the sort of place they never could afford on their own. Both were dressed in their best outfits, dark pants and polo shirts that they carefully tucked in, though barely sufficient for the restaurant staff. Nonetheless, Casey found himself face to face with two living Rangers, and all he found himself blurting was, “Your frog really should hop more, and your falcon is really scary.”

For a moment, both men were silent. Then they dared to meet each other’s eyes, and a snigger escaped Adam’s lips. In short order both were laughing as loudly as polite dining would allow.

When they’d calmed, Tommy offered a hand. “Tommy Oliver,” he said, grasping Casey’s gently. “This is Adam Park.”

When their fingers touched, Casey gasped, colors flooding into his mind. Green, slimy, sickly green that ate at the soul leaving nothing but fury. White, cleansing and healing what it could of the damage done before. Red, red, nobility and pride mixed with sacrifice and suffering. Invisible, vanishing as if it wasn’t supposed to be there. Something that, wasn’t. Under it all was another color, sleeping, sleeping…

He let go with a yelp, flying back into the corner of the booth. “Too many colors,” he whispered, pulling his feet up so he could hug his knees. “Why are you so colorful?”

He looked up again in surprise as Adam laughed again, earning himself a glare from Tommy. “He’s not wrong man,” was all he said as Tommy continued to look like he wanted nothing more than to make Adam shut up.

“I apologize for your discomfort,” Tommy said formally, ignoring his chortling friend. “I didn’t realize you had special abilities.”

Casey’s mouth opened in an O, making Uncle Bulk laugh. “Close your mouth before a fly flies into it,” he teased.

“Do others have special abilities?” Casey asked timidly.

“Some do, some don’t,” Adam replied, “It isn’t uncommon, but most people don’t advertise it.”

“Oh.”

“That’s for another day, however,” Tommy interjected. “We have more immediate problems.”

Somehow his tone of voice snapped all of their attention onto him without questioning. Their careful stare was interrupted by a waitress coming over to take their orders, but once she left again Tommy put his elbows on the table and leaned forward.

“Am I correct in assuming that you are Casey?” At Casey’s nod, he took a deep breath, releasing it slowly. “Okay, Adam could you let Andros know we’ve found him?”

Looking somewhat startled, the other man nodded, leaving the booth and fiddling with a small bracelet. With him gone, Tommy turned his attention back to Uncle Bulk and Casey.

“I’m glad you’re safe. Ideally we’d be sending you home, but I’m afraid KO35 is under attack. The Rangers can handle it, but you’re too young to be sent back into a war zone. Do you know how you got to Earth?” He asked, almost as an afterthought.

Casey shook his head, picking at the corner of the table.

“Okay,” Tommy said, “that’s fine. They may have kept you unconscious, or possibly drugged you so you can’t remember. It does make narrowing down the threat more difficult.” He sighed, leaning his elbows on the table. “This is a delicate situation. Your guardians are all worried about you, but sending you home isn’t really an option.”

“If I may,” Uncle Bulk broke in abruptly, “why doesn’t he stay with me? We have a thing going, it works pretty well. Skull is helping me with bills, making sure there’s enough for both of us to live pretty decently. Kid’ll want for nothing.”

A fond amusement slipped over Tommy’s face, confusing Casey. “Never thought I’d see the day you became a parent, Bulk.” The words would have been harsh, Casey thought, if they weren’t so amused. Uncle Bulk flushed, grinning almost shyly.

“Well, you’re an awfully good kid,” he said to Casey, then turned back to Tommy. “And there’s no one in the universe better at dealing with monsters than me and Skull. Did I ever tell you about the time we found Rito and Goldar,”

Tommy help up a hand, chuckling. “Okay, you have a point. Casey, what do you want?”

All attention turned to him, and Casey found himself sliding toward the Panda without thinking about it. It enveloped him in a hug, and he relaxed. “I want mommy,” he said quietly, “but Uncle Bulk and Panda are good too.”

“Panda?” Uncle Bulk asked, looking around.

Tommy smiled, “He can see animal spirits,” he explained to the larger man. “Apparently yours is a panda.”

“Oh.” Uncle Bulk looked genuinely unsure what to do with this information for a moment, then turned to Casey and asked, “What else can you do?”


	5. Chapter 5

5.

Life on Earth was good to Casey. He learned how to cook from Uncle Bulk, terrible humor from Uncle Skull, and was offered free martial arts lessons from Adam, Tommy, and their partners Rocky and Jason. Sometimes, when they had time, other rangers would return to Angel Grove and give him lessons in other fields as well. Dancing, gymnastics, singing, bare bones basics but he looked forward to seeing Kat, Trini, Zack, Kim and Tanya all the same.

His uncles visited whenever they could, and even brought his mom to visit when there was a break in battles. They were patient with him when he was angry with them, and held him close when he let them. By the time he was ten they settled into a pattern, he would spend the summer on the astro megaship, and went to school on Earth. With the help of the Rangers and his Uncles he went to a private school that was almost as good as one on KO35. Almost. It wasn’t a perfect life, but it was good. He knew he was loved.

When he was twelve, Tommy vanished. He was declared dead in an explosion on an island he was working on, looking for fossils and something to do with the morphing grid. The funeral was small, they had no body to bury. Tommy’s team came, though even that consisted of eleven people. His brother was there, as were his adopted parents. An old man named Ernie, and a strange amalgamation of scientists, racers, and Rangers, as well as Bulk, Skull and Casey himself.

The reception was much larger, held at Bulk’s outdoor café. It had slowly evolved into more of a restaurant, less about drinks and far more food. His cooking had improved greatly, and with everyone chipping in they managed to create a feast fit to remember the most legendary Power Ranger.

When most of the people had petered off, NASCAR drivers and paleontologists and childhood friends all headed home, there were only Rangers left. Casey found himself adrift in a sea of colors, causing a niggling doubt to begin forming in his mind. Colors were important, colors meant Rangers. Colors…

Wandering over to Jason, Casey ignored the conversation he was having with Billy and took his hand, turning over in his mind the red and gold-black that flooded his mind. The gold-black felt wrong, degenerative. The red echoed the lion that would paw around Jason when he was focused on a kata. Frowning to himself, he ignored the surprised look that Jason threw him, walking over and grabbing Adam’s hand. Black and green. Billy, blue. Kim, pink, though tinged with some messier colors, white-ish but not. Uncle Zhane, bright and shiny silver that hummed with unending power. None of them felt wrong, or incomplete. Frustration started to build in him, and he sat down in the middle of the grass.

Jason came over to him, squatting next to him while surreptitiously waving the others back. “Hey, Casey, you want to tell me what that was all about?”

“It’s not right!” he said, tearing up grass in frustration. “He didn’t have all his colors yet!”

Silence fell over the entire yard. “What do you mean, Casey?” Billy asked, joining Jason next to him.

Casey frowned, looking away. “He didn’t have all his colors yet. You, you’re blue. That’s all. None of you feel like he did! You have your colors. He didn’t.”

“Casey, he was three colors already,” Kim said, walking over cautiously to give him a hug. “That’s more than anyone has ever held before or after him.”

Casey pouted. “But it wasn’t ready.”

“I believe you,” Jason said, ruffling his hair gently. “I believe you. That may have been why the island blew up. He was probably poking his nose into Ranger things again. Maybe, the monsters just won this time.”

Casey shook his head stubbornly, but leaned into Jason’s touch all the same. The lion showed up, nudging him fondly. Whether or not they believed him, or even understood what he was saying, Casey felt secure in the knowledge that he was cared about.

 

Shortly after Tommy’s death, he met his “biological” fathers. Uncle Andros had done his best to explain how Casey was created from traits of two of the best Rangers of the time by a monster, hoping to create a weapon that could destroy the rangers for her. “But instead we got you,” Uncle Zhane had chimed in. “You were really cute. But both of them were too badly injured to care for you, so they asked us to keep you safe for them.”

It seemed they had finally healed enough that he could meet them. Since Bulk had to work and the Astro Rangers were defending KO35 from attack, Casey found himself with Jason, driving to Mariner Bay.

“You doing okay, kid?” he asked as they reached the outskirts of the city.

Casey nodded, poking at his spiky hair as best he could. It was unruly, and seemed worse than ever. His clothes felt too tight, too loose, too bright and too warm. They were the clothes he always wore for nice occasions, though just a polo shirt and nice shorts. His sandals were sharp against his feet, all of his skin tingling with nervousness.

“Tommy’s not dead you know,” he said to change the subject.

Jason’s hands tightened on the wheel, his knuckles turning white. “Why would you say that?”

“Mom showed me what the colors were,” he replied sulkily. “There aren’t any broken from your Rangers.”

Jason’s grip on the wheel slowly relaxed. “Don’t tell people,” he advised in a low voice. “If Tommy wants to be thought dead, he has a good reason.”

Casey nodded, then turned to look out the window.

He had thought they were headed to a house, but ended up by a highrise apartment building.

They took an elevator to the eleventh floor, stopping briefly so Casey could calm down. The lion had come out to comfort him, and it walked beside him as he held Jason’s hand, walking to the apartment.

The man who opened the door was tall, had spiky hair just like Casey’s, and wore dark grey. He had a gangly build, but his control over his limbs was perfect. If Casey had to pick out a feature, however, it would have been his nose. It was large, and offset by dark grey eyes that stared through Casey, as if examining his soul.

Behind him, in a wheelchair, though crutches were visibly leaned against a chair, was a man in red. His face was kinder than the first man, His hair was cut short, but floppier than Casey’s. It lay flat against his head. His eyes were earnest, but behind the earnestness Casey could see shadows of something else, something he didn’t understand.

The wheelchair man spoke first, wheeling himself forward to take Casey’s hand. “You must be Casey. My name is Carter, and this is Ryan. Forgive him, he’s unused to kids.”

Casey took his hand hesitantly, jumping back as cracked red seared through his mind. “Broken,” he said, clinging to Jason’s hand, trying to find a calmer color despite the sickly gold that was ever present. “It _hurts._ ”

He turned and hugged Jason, ignoring the glare that Ryan aimed at him. “We need to call mom,” he said, looking beseechingly at Jason. “She can help. Or, Tommy could. Or,”

“Tommy’s dead, Casey,” Jason gently rebuked. “But if you say his connection to the grid is broken, I believe you. I’ll go call some people if you’re okay to get to know them?”

Casey nodded into his chest, carefully turning back around and smiling nervously at the two startled men.

Rubbing the back of his neck nervously as the door closed behind him, he stretched out a hand to Ryan. Still glaring slightly, the man took it, gingerly as if he might burn him.

Casey didn’t flinch as the _titanium_ slammed into his mind. Strong. It was almost as powerful as Uncle Zhane’s power. Just as unflinching, just as willing to defend at the cost of his life. He felt unbreakable, inhumanly so.

He didn’t question it, instead followed them into the apartment. It was airy, one wall entirely windows. Two couches, a TV and a table sat in the middle of the main room, a small kitchen to the side of the door. A bathroom and a bedroom were on the left. The couches were red with silver embroidery, the walls grey with one picture of their team on the wall.

Their talk was stilted, none quite sure what to say. Casey was terribly aware that he was probably created by the same people that had hurt Carter so much, though neither seemed to hold it against him. He talked with them about school, and his friends (few though they were). He talked with them about his Rangerkid family, Lauren and baby Jayden from the ancient Ranger line who had been inactive until recently. He talked about Rose, and clever little Will. They all discussed the Ninja Rangers that were fighting with Aliens. “It’s always something,” was Ryan’s scant input on the matter.

In return, Carter told stories of when he was a fireman, and a Ranger. Before the incident fourteen years before. Before Casey was created. Before he got thrown into the underworld for six long years before Ryan finally managed to pull him out.

When it came time to leave, Jason returned with Adam and a strange, saucer headed robot. Trailing behind them was Billy, his oversized glasses knocked askew by the equipment he was carrying.

Leaving with Jason, Casey clung to his arm again, and smiled to himself. For once, it felt like everything would be okay.

 

Casey was fourteen when the Dino Thunder Rangers appeared. His growth spurt hadn’t hit yet, so his feet were too big, and he felt clumsy as he tried to follow the kata Jason was leading him through. The television in the corner of the exercise room switched abruptly from a soap opera to Breaking News from Reefside. More monsters, he thought to himself. Always more monsters. True, they had a year’s break since the Ninja Rangers were fighting. But now, looking at the team, so small, only three rangers, all Casey felt was sad. There was some fight footage, then the three of them appearing from thin air, along with a man behind them.

“Hey, they’ll be okay,” Jason said, his hand warm on Casey’s shoulder. “All teams have to start some place.”

Casey shook his head wordlessly, pointing at the screen. The footage was shaky, taken from a distance on a cell phone or similar device. But even with the poor quality, it was hard to mistake the spiky head he’d been looking for for two years.

But even as they watched Tommy turned around, holding a crystal to try and block a lightning blast that ended up backfiring. The resulting explosion threw the person recording back, even from quite a distance, and the last shaky footage was of one of the rangers falling to their knees. Then the camera cut out, interference from the monsters, or the explosion, or just damage to the phone ending the recording.

Jason’s hand tightened on his shoulder. “They’re Rangers,” he said after a long moment. “They’ll be okay.”

“You should go.” Casey said.

Jason returned to his kata. “Sometimes, Case, you gotta know when to let go.”

 

That night, Casey couldn’t sleep. For once it was more than Uncle Bulk’s deep snoring, usually a comforting sound in many ways, keeping him awake. Instead it was the flash of explosion, and the terrible pain lurking behind Jason’s eyes as he saw the footage. He wasn’t sure what had made Jason upset, whether it was because Tommy really was alive, or because he might have just died again, right in front of their eyes.

The calm that had settled over Jason as they continued their practice was unsettling. The lion didn’t come out to play, as he usually did when they practiced. Instead, each movement Jason made was precise, pointed and aimed to harm the air around it. If he had been an elemental Ranger, Casey was sure he would’ve burned down the exercise center.

But Jason’s control was perfect, and nothing was harmed. Even Jason’s limbs came out safely. He didn’t punch a wall, or the floor, or anything else. Just sliced the air with purpose.

It was enough to convince Casey that something had to be done. So as Uncle Bulk slept, he packed a bag and made his way to the bus station.

He never reached Reefside.


	6. Chapter 6

6.

Casey Rhodes walked along the road, carrying a red backpack that held all his possessions in the world. Changes of clothes, toiletries, some money, a book, and distant memories of family that was long gone.

When he left Angel Grove to find Tommy he didn’t realize the monsters would leave Reefside, or even could. As he made his way to Reefside, an attack was launched on Angel Grove. He didn’t know the name of the monster, it didn’t matter. In the end the monster was defeated as they always are. But Bulkmier’s was destroyed, as was Uncle’s house. Casey could find no evidence of anyone he knew being alive, the dojo and exercise centers were toast, as were the apartments they had lived in.

Child services had taken him in. No one came for him. He had given Carter and Ryan’s names as guardians. When inquiries were made no response was given. Or, as Casey hoped at times, it was just because they were gay, and someone decided to obey their religious laws over his wellbeing.

Whatever the case, he had lived in a group home until he was sixteen, then emancipated himself. He hit the road, ignoring the conditions of his freedom, choosing to wander from city to city, living on odd jobs and whatever kindness he could find. He’d been on the road almost a year, wandering, unsure of what he wanted to do, unsure of where he was going or where he would end up.

He had traveled far from California, though not out of the states for lack of a passport. Remaining low-profile was simply easier when he wasn’t also sneaking past boarder security, and liable to be asked for identification at any time. A fact he had learned quickly about America, as a white man he had few problems with the police. True, he did look a bit like a punk at times, and his homeless status was always suspect. But with gentle words and misdirection he could usually talk himself out of trouble. It helped that he had never done drugs, and with all tests coming up negative they rarely cared to bother him further. He looked old enough to be on his own, after all.

Nor were other street dwellers much of a threat. His martial arts skills were rusty, with his teachers dead he had no desire to find another. But he’d found the core of magic his mother had told him about, at long last. It was a cold and dark sort of place, deeper inside of him than his animal spirit. It wasn’t a power he could control very well, but he could exude an aura that made those around him run. Solitude was welcome.

Even more welcome was his detachment from media. He didn’t know if the Dino Rangers had won their battles. He didn’t care. In the back of his mind he had some small awareness that two other teams had come and gone in the time he was in the system. They were farther away, or at least better contained. The Mystic Rangers barely seemed to deal with any damage at all, to their world anyway. Casey assumed, from what he heard, that most of the battles were waged in the monster’s world for once.

The Indiana Jones Rangers, as the papers had dubbed them, seemed to be searching for treasures. The monsters didn’t care much about California, or the States at all really. All over the world, attacks were reported or felt. But only a few were anywhere nearby, and the damage to civilian centers was relatively minimal.

So he ignored them. They had their fight, and as Jason said they were Rangers. They’d be fine. Despite the apparent unrealized potential inside of him, Casey was quite sure he couldn’t do anything to help anyway. Being anywhere near them would only be a bitter reminder that Rangers aren’t always okay.

That was how he found himself quietly watching the Spirit Animals of the people playing in the park on a sunny summer day. He had decided to stop in San Angeles to see if volunteers for damage cleanup were needed. As it happened, there wasn’t much left to do. So he muttered to himself the types of people in the area, and stared intently at those who weren’t relaxed enough for him to see their spirits.

“An awfully cute Lion over there,” a voice commented from behind the bench where he sat. “Though she does seem to be a bit of a bully.”

He stared at his hands intently, wondering if the person would go away if he just didn’t answer. To his annoyance, a leathery old man in an orange robe sat on the bench beside him. “It is an incredibly rare gift you have, young man,” he said, laying one of his arms over the back of the bench. “Does it disturb you?”

“No sir,” Casey replied quietly, shifting away as unobtrusively as he could manage. “It’s just unusual for anyone else to see it.”

“My name is Mao,” the man said, staring off into the crowded park, “I run an academy for those who wish to learn more about themselves, the world, and martial arts.”

“What order?” Casey asked. “There are a lot of martial arts schools after all.”

The old man laughed, a warm sound that made Casey relax. “We are known as the Order of the Claw.”

“Never heard of it,” Casey replied, leaning down and pulling half a peanut butter sandwich out of his satchel.

“We’re somewhat unknown,” Mao agreed, unphased by Casey’s bluntness. “However, it is a good place to find missing parts of yourself when you don’t know where to go.”

Hidden under a black hood, Casey’s eyes shot toward the man. He seemed relaxed, uncaring. But something told Casey that he was not only being honest, but also seemed quite anxious for Casey to go with him.

“Why me?” he asked after a moment. “Why now? There have got to be better people out there.”

“You underestimate yourself, Casey,” Mao said, smiling, though still not looking at Casey directly, “and you underestimate the power of a choice. You can choose to be lost, or you can choose to find a path for yourself again.”

“What if I choose not to choose?” Casey asked, ignoring the blatant name drop. “Isn’t that a choice?”

“It is,” Mao agreed, “but if you don’t choose, you’ll be even more lost than before.”

When the man stood up to leave, Casey followed him.

 

The Pai Zhua academy was unexpected. Deep in a forest that he was sure had been mapped many times by the locals in a building that rose half as tall as the hills. The teaching was old fashioned, with uniforms and no connection to the outside world. Many of the students there were from families that had attended the academy, others were lost and forgotten, without homes or people who cared if they were alive. Very few seemed to have outside connections, as no one left until their training was complete, or they chose to leave the order.

This rule was not without exception, of course. Casey had spoken with Sasha, another relatively new student at the academy. A few weeks after she arrived her grandfather had died, and Master Mao allowed her to go spend time with her family until she was truly ready to start her training. It had taken her another year to adjust enough to return. Other students were similarly reassuring when he expressed concern that he might be trapped there.

He felt somewhat out of place, as most students were younger than him. Beginners were generally ranging from five to ten years of age. Advanced students were often around his age, or less. It quickly became tempting to use his rusty martial arts skills to improve more quickly, but Casey forced himself to center in the simple lessons he was sent to. Meditation was relaxing, and he found after a week that his tiger spirit was much more affable than it had been since he had left home.

One week into his training he was invited to view a senior duel. Six contenders were fighting to be given a role within the order, though what it might be was unspecified. It seemed silly, really, to pit people against each other in order to find suitable candidates. Warlike even. Wouldn’t it just come down to the most determined to defeat the other, even though by that point they should be friends?

He went anyway, noting the spirits of the competitors with interest. Cheetah, leopard, panther, lion, (he had begun to notice a definite theme) minx and oddly enough, a terrier. The entire situation seemed almost rigged however, as one side was clearly more in control of their spirits than the other. Though, he thought, if that was the point of this exercise, weeding out those with more control, it wasn’t the worst way if you couldn’t see the spirits yourself.

So he watched as a young woman with a cheetah, and two young men, the lion spirit and the jaguar spirit defeated their opponents. He could appreciate the skill of the cheetah warrior, she was extremely fast. The jaguar warrior was a bit of a showman, and his “yaah!” before he calmly gathered his spirit seemed a little unnecessary, but the two of them seemed to be in control of their power, for the most part. The lion was, another story. Pure power matched the fast paced kicks of his opponent, toying with the man. When he called his spirit it was almost lazy, forcing his opponent to the ground with a victorious pleasure Casey couldn’t say he was terribly fond of. Before the lion could do more damage, Master Mao declared them winners, and the lion spirit immediately began harassing underclassmen for no apparent reason, ignoring Master Mao directly behind him.

Then again, since Master Mao didn’t do anything about it either, he supposed it wasn’t too terribly odd. How militaristic of them.

But when basket of towels was pointlessly shoved to the ground, he couldn’t stay still, sensing the terrified kid could well be next. Grabbing a towel he modulated his voice to be as non-confrontational as possible, handing it over to the oversized bully. He looked away, trying very hard to focus on the bench beside them, and not confront him further.

It didn’t work, and as he was shoved to the ground he felt a familiar presence rise in him, lashing out at his attacker. He roared, the force of his instinct throwing the senior student through the air, falling on his side. Pulling back, trying to retain some small control over the situation, he apologized, confused by the feeling of his spirit manifesting to protect him. Mildly worried, as well, what retribution might come from senior students in general if they found out that the new kid was capable of doing things that many of them weren’t.

But Master Mao defused the situation, banished the lion (without considering what exactly he’d end up doing with his training) and added Casey to the evening roster with the two remaining winners.

He’d had worse days.

 

He stood corrected, running from the academy with two strangers, away from the first place he’d found peace in a very long time to go and find a new master. He hadn’t even wanted one in the first place, much less to watch him die and be told to find another and fight evil! All he’d wanted was for Master Mao to be right, that he might heal enough at the school to find his path in life. Instead he was running as fast as he could, still far behind the other two, headed to Ocean Bluff, even though neither of them seemed to want to deal with him. Theo in particular was throwing glances back at him, as if he was the most useless baggage possible.

He could see where Theo was coming from. He really wasn’t very good at Pai Zhua martial arts yet. He had his background in various karate forms, some Tae Kwon Do and bits and pieces of other, random forms that the Rangers had shown him before they all died. He had the discipline taught to him since he was two and stretched with his mother among the tall grasses of KO35. He had all of that.

But he was not a senior Pai Zhua student. He didn’t have a belly button. He was born of demon greed and should never have existed. There were far better reasons, he mused, for Theo to hate him. But if his ineptness was all the guy chose to scorn, he could live with it. They didn’t know each other, and if he looked closely at how Theo and Lily stood, he could see a faint echo of the weight he had been carrying since the attack on Angel Grove on both of them. The grief of having utterly failed those you care about, despite knowing full well there was nothing you could have done.

So he didn’t say a word as the two senior students tried to outrun their pain. Ocean Bluff was a few hours run away, and they had plenty of time to internalize the helpless rage and frustration they were feeling. When they reached the place they would find their master, a pizza shop of all things, the other two almost seemed ready to deal with what lay ahead. If, perhaps, a little too eager.

 

The encounter in the pizza shop went, better than he thought it would. True, Casey felt foolish for assuming that their master had to be an old Asian man, just because Master Mao was one. But once they were eating pizza he became suspicious. He’d known enough martial artists to know they came in all shapes, sizes and personalities. This one seemed fairly eccentric, but there was nothing wrong with that. As they ate, he caught a glimpse up RJ’s sleeve, the mark of the order barely visible under the coat of flour.

So when he came out to rescue them from the monster, it did take some effort for him to act surprised. Somehow, nobody noticed how forced his shock was, or if they did they let it slide. RJ welcomed them like old friends, treatment Casey had almost forgotten over the years. They all made themselves at home, perhaps a little more quickly than was polite. RJ was remarkably cool with it all, only marking out one, single spot for himself. True, choosing the chair was a little random, but Casey wasn’t going to question it. Nor were Theo and Lily, it seemed, as both of them were equally silent on the subject.

The monster appearing already set off niggling alarm bells in the back of Casey’s mind. They were quickly confirmed as RJ gathered them together, handing them color coded shirts. Things were even more confirmed when he outright said the words, “Power Rangers. You. Be. Them!”

If he hadn’t wanted to run for dear life before then, the sight of the red morpher, streamline and cool though it was, cemented his desire to run away. Far away. Thankfully, Theo covered his uncertainty nicely with his excitement. He was, he had to admit, a bit more interested in the connections RJ had to the Rangers. A guy who knew a guy who had an uncle, not too many relational pathways that could take, especially with the still surviving Rangers. Unless, of course, the Uncle was like most of Casey’s uncles had been; unrelated adopted family and therefore rather impossible to track.

He had also underestimated the amount of will it would take for him to morph. On some deep, visceral level he _didn’t want to._ Watching Theo and Lily morph with ease, fighting off monsters with all their hearts (and apparently having a blast as they did) was amazing. Like stepping into a dream, as he had never actually seen a morph before. But as he raised his hands to morph doubt flooded his mind. Jason, Tommy, Uncle Andros, Carter and Rocky flashed into his mind, the memories taking his breath away.

_I don’t want to remember. I don’t want to die like them._

If it weren’t for Fran being attacked by the monster he would never have morphed. But as he saw her pain, her screams tore at his ears and once again he couldn’t quite control the fury that rose in him, the power of his spirit willing itself to get out. He barely had to move to throw off the rinshi drones, all his energy focused on _morph,_ and _save her._

Ironically, by the time he’d morphed the monster had tossed her aside. Apparently her fear was exhausted since it threw her away so quickly. Still, he had to admit that falling the equivalent of one story wouldn’t have been good for her anyway. So, catching her was of some value, he supposed.

Looking in the mirror now, he could see dark circles under his eyes. It had been a long few days. In less than two weeks he had gone from wanderer, to Power Ranger in a town he’d never been to, with a team he didn’t know. He’d found a way to control the power that his mother had tried teaching him to work with when he was just a child. It had taken so many years, and to finally be able to just, let go and let loose so much pure, pent up energy was exhilarating. Exhausting. Terrifying. Thrilling. He wasn’t even sure. Sending forth the tiger on purpose felt, right.

It had been an amazing day. Even with their near death at the feet of a giant monster, it was possibly the most interesting day Casey had lived through. Even with RJ assigning them weapons, knowing full well that Casey couldn’t use the nunchaku he was assigned. He didn’t know what to do with RJ, the guy was both eccentric and entirely down to earth. He seemed to want them to do well, but showed no signs of being open to actively helping them. Then again, they had rather sprung themselves on the guy, invaded his house and pizza parlor, increased his staff by four times (if you counted Fran) and somehow expected him to manage to pay them… Overall it didn’t add up well. The guy had to have outside funds, since he seemed perfectly willing to give pizza away to the hungry, and experiment with recipes without a care for whether they lost him money.

So either he had backing from some outside source, or he was just a terrible businessman. Both seemed plausible.

Rinsing his face with water, looking down at the brown-gold pottery sink, Casey supported his weight on the edges. Water dripping down his face he looked into the mirror, trying to see what changed. It was difficult, since much of the change stemmed from simply not having had enough to eat for a year or so. His sorrow and weariness wasn’t apparent on his face, if anything he looked like a happy, if slightly under fed young man. Stressed, perhaps, but not unreasonably so. Odd to be looking in a mirror, there hadn’t been mirrors at the academy. They had chopped his floppy hair off, cleaned him up, and he’d had no idea the difference it made.

“Will you be done soon?” RJ asked, waltzing in without knocking. “Sleep makes for better training!”

Casey grabbed the hand towel by the sink and quickly dried his face, turning to hurry out. A gentle hand caught his shoulder, but when he turned his head to look at RJ the man’s face was turned away. Out of the farthest corner of his eye, Casey could see him in the mirror, his expression almost grim, and sad. His hand tightened on Casey’s shoulder, and then he let go as if he had never touched him.

As Casey curled into the red hammock that had been hung for him, the warmth of RJ’s hand lingered. _He knows,_ he realized as he drifted off to sleep. _He knows how much I have to learn. He knows how hard this will be._


	7. Chapter 7

7.

Learning to use nunchaku hurt. It hurt his head, his hands, his arms. His hands were numb from effort by the end of the day. His head rang from the constant hits on his helmet. Theo wasn’t the most patient of instructors, either. He worked hard at taking things slow, but as someone who had mastered these weapons he wasn’t terribly understanding of how many details Casey needed explained to him.

The number of times he wished throughout the day that RJ had selected the Bo for his weapon couldn’t be counted. That one he had down pat, both Tommy and Jason were experts and had trained him with most stick weapons. But nunchaku were illegal in California (a fact the super-secret order seemed not to care about) and so he had never touched them before.

It did, however, maintain his newbie appearance. His general competence on the battlefield aside, everyone was cutting him a lot of slack for being new, even Theo. Theo wasn’t happy about it, it was impossible for Casey to miss his scornful assessment when he was making pizza. But he was taking time out to teach him, assumptions of what Casey should know aside, it was an appreciated effort.

But then he told him to use his animal spirit in conjunction, and suddenly it all became clear. The tiger happily was channeled through the weapons, slicing through the world around him, shattering a boulder with explosive force.

 _Control!_ Jason’s sharp rebuke rang through his head. The same word he always said when Casey was careless when sparring. _Control, or you’ll hurt someone._

But there was no time to try again. Once again he was plunged headlong into a battle he wasn’t ready for. None of them were, though Theo and Lily seemed much more confident than he felt. Using the nunchaku was much easier when he was morphed, as RJ had said the suits had knowledge programmed in, knowledge that only lingered slightly once he demorphed.

Making his spirit grow however, and become a protective shell for them, was exhausting. Not only could the whole world then see his spirit, but he was allowing a monster to attack it. The blows the monster rained on them were terrifying, as he realized that if their “zords” were damaged beyond repair, they would be too.

But he had no better plan for defeating the monster. So he let himself enjoy the victory, swallowing down any doubt he had that this was a good idea. It seemed to be the only way, and the echo in his mind of Jason’s assurance that _they’re Rangers, they’ll be fine_ , assured him that there was hope.

As he sat awake by the training area, staring into the shadowy room, he felt a presence behind him. RJ didn’t say a word, just sat behind him, eyes boring into his back. They stayed that way for perhaps a half an hour before Casey asked, “Why did Master Mao choose me?”

“I suppose because you have great potential,” RJ replied, his voice as full and flippant as ever. “One can never judge a book, after all.”

“But it doesn’t make any sense!” Casey insisted, clenching his hands together in fists. “I’m nobody, just a kid off the street.”

RJ hesitated only a second before sidling down a few steps to sit beside him. “I had a cousin, well, have a cousin, who was a Ranger,” he said, his hands never still. “He was one of the original California Rangers in Angel Grove. Became a Ranger in highschool.”

“What’s his name?” Casey asked idly.

RJ smiled and said, “Wrong question, mon ami, though good guess.”

“Why does he matter then?” Casey asked, barely able to control his irritation. “What was special about him that he became a Ranger?”

RJ’s grin was bright, even in the shadows of the loft. “Nothing. He was just a guy, in love with his friend, good at martial arts and trying to live, then boom! Out of nowhere a monster captures him and his friends, and before he knew it he was a Ranger.”

“So what you’re saying is, I just have to make the most of it?” Casey asked. “I’m nothing special, and just have to deal with what others decided I should be?”

“No, not at all,” RJ assured him, standing to walk away, clapping a hand on his shoulder again. “Just because you don’t have to be special to be a Ranger doesn’t mean that you, individually, aren’t.” As he walked out, toward the restaurant, RJ turned his head back to look at Casey again, “and you can always choose _not_ to be a Ranger. Try it if you want, see how it goes.”

 

He didn’t try.

The next monster came quite a bit too soon for that. The buffalo spirit slammed through them without trouble, and as he had long been trained to do, Casey asked his new mentor for help.

RJ was frustrating at the best of times, but he probably could have taken the unorthodox training in stride if, when RJ asked for a massage, his finger hadn’t brushed against his skin. Just a touch, but even a touch was enough for the potential to flood his mind. But more than potential, a color. Violet. A color the grid hadn’t connected within human memory. It would be powerful, and more of a target than any other color could be.

He didn’t react through dint of will, pushing his fingers into unyielding flesh and teasing out the knots from stress and the abuse of kneading large batches of dough. As one would expect from a master martial artist, RJ’s muscles were dense, but also relatively supple. He was a strong man.

Apparently wise as well. He was unphased by Casey’s outbursts, helped him understand the point of the training, and through it all radiated an odd mix of uncaring, and approval. It was different, very different from Jason’s strict rules and warm smile, or Tommy’s encouragement and critiques. He never explained to Casey how to hold himself, or what movement to undertake, trusting that he had a mind of his own. The man didn’t even comment when Casey threw him _in the air_ , which at a week and a half’s training he shouldn’t have been able to do. Even with most of the training he’d had over the course of his life, and the power aiding him, he shouldn’t have been able to. But there it was. RJ landed just fine, pulling out of it comfortably and smiling at the result.

But as he sat once again in the darkness, absorbing the day by tracing the shadows with his eyes, the terror when RJ told him not to go with Lily and Theo to fight the monster and his calm acknowledgement that if they were to be destroyed, they would be destroyed, haunted him. They weren’t yet his friends, precisely. Both still preferred each others company. But he was their leader, their lives were put in his hands each time they walked onto the battlefield. They shouldn’t be, he knew. Lily was better prepared to lead them.

This time, Theo joined him. His spiky hair was sleep-smooshed and he was holding a glass as though off to get some water. “Can’t sleep?” he asked Casey, sitting next to him.

Casey shook his head. “Too much on my mind, I guess.”

“Want to talk about it?” Theo asked, shifting uncomfortably.

Casey sighed, shaking his head slowly. “You two could have died out there today because I’m not trained enough.”

Theo shrugged. “We didn’t, so you don’t need to worry about it.”

“I _do_ have to!” Casey snapped, stalking off onto the basketball court, the shadows swallowing him. “Rangers die! RJ selected me as leader, and all I do is let you down!”

“Hey, Casey, calm down,” Theo said, walking over to him awkwardly. “You’re doing your best. You have to trust us too.”

“I just don’t want to lose anyone else.” Casey said, his shoulders sagging.

“You won’t,” Theo said, tugging him back toward the kitchens. “Come on, let’s get some water and go sleep. You have to open in the morning.”

Casey followed without protest, but was unable to shake the feeling that eyes were following him as he followed Theo.

 

It shouldn’t have surprised him when RJ singled him out after his shift the next day. A monster free day, he found himself meditating in the loft. As he did, he sensed a presence join him, so silently that he wouldn’t have known if the wolf spirit weren’t so much louder than its master.

They meditated together in silence, and though RJ never said a word there was a silent question that rang through their meditation. As if RJ was seeking the answer to his questions, even while knowing it was none of his business.

But then, it was his business. If he was sending them into battle, though Casey knew he’d hate to view it that way, RJ needed to know their hangups. Their quirks and traumas.

“I was raised by Rangers,” Casey said into the silence. “Until I was twelve.”

Not unexpectedly, RJ gave no sign that he’d heard a word Casey had said. A tiny furrow of his brow was all Casey could see. “They died.” He finished hoarsely. There was nothing else to say, really.

They sat there for a while longer, but when Casey stood to leave RJ said, “Consider, Casey, what it is you fear. Do you not want to die like them? Or are you more afraid to live as they lived?”

Casey didn’t reply. He wasn’t sure what he would have said anyway. He had never wanted to be a ranger. He didn’t particularly want to die. None of it mattered. He was a ranger. Rangers die, even if it’s after.

 

Dinner that night was communal, everyone gathered in the kitchen to munch on pizza made from the day’s scraps. It was unusual pizza, but pineapple and tofu with basil and fresh mozzarella wasn’t a bad combination. The silence was, awkward. Theo and Lily didn’t come into the kitchen talking for once, and breaching the silence was quickly becoming difficult. The only sound was the echoing tap of RJ’s fingers against the counter.

“So, where are you from, Casey?” Lily asked suddenly between bites of pizza.

“I was, uh, born, in Mariner Bay,” Casey replied. “Moved around a bit, ended up in Angel Grove till I turned 16, been moving around since.”

“Marinar Bay, huh?” Theo said, sipping some water. “Hey, didn’t they have Rangers there?”

Casey smiled crookedly, “Yeah, about seventeen, eighteen years ago. A good team. I was cr-, born about when the fighting was over.”

“You’re only seventeen?” Lily asked in surprise, leaning back on the counter. “Theo and I are both nineteen.”

Casey flushed, “I’m eighteen,” he grumbled, staring at his pizza. “If you accept another planet’s years,” he added under his breath. RJ’s tapping fingers faltered for a moment, then continued.

“I’m from San Angeles,” Theo offered, “Lily and I went to school together there. We were selected from the local dojo to go to the academy. Missed out on all the Ranger action.”

“You have families?” Casey asked, unable to conceal his surprise. His pizza sat forgotten in his hand, and though he didn’t notice it a slight breeze ran through the kitchen, knocking flour to the floor.

“Of course,” Lily said, smiling warmly at him. “We could visit them upon request, or five times a year for holidays. Didn’t Master Mao tell you?”

Casey shook his head, “I didn’t ask.”

“Wow,” Theo said, clearly struggling for his usual enthusiasm. “You must have been really dedicated to training.”

“Not really,” Casey replied, turning to clean up the counter, absently using the crust of his pizza to scrape flour off the counter instead of the metal scraper. “I suppose I just assumed.”

He saw Lily elbow Theo out of the corner of his eye, her eyes sad and compassionate. Fortunately, RJ broke into the moment, “Well, while all this has been fascinating, we’d best clean up and get to bed. Long day tomorrow, and it’s your turn to open, Theo.”

Somehow, their pasts were a subject not broached again for quite some time.


	8. Chapter 8

8.

Poison sucks. That was the takeaway Casey had from this battle. Not that it could be considered much of a battle. One minute he was having a food fight with Lily, next he was face to face with once-was-Jarred, was blamed for his going batshit evil, and then was poisoned to harm, not kill.

None of it made much sense to him. But it had been a pretty confusing day overall. Dai Shi being Jarred wasn’t something he had ever considered possible. He hadn’t thought about Jarred at all since he had become a Ranger. Neither had he realized just how much better off the Rangers would have been with Jarred’s skills, bully or no the man had tossed him around like scrambled eggs.

He also hadn’t realized how much poison could hurt without killing.

His thoughts kept coming back to that one. Lying on his hammock, staring at the ceiling, he had to admit that the quick defeat, and even Dai Shi laying the blame for Jarred’s apparent demise on Casey wasn’t as troubling as the fire that was burning through his veins. Even now, it wasn’t entirely gone, making his limbs shudder. If anything it was worse, he realized. While he had held himself still when the others were there, alone he fell apart. Silent tears forced their way out of his eyes, reflex at the pain that had been building for hours.

He rolled out of his hammock, it wasn’t solid enough. He couldn’t center himself, floating above the floor. The hammock itself felt too hard and loose at once, and he found himself longing for the rocky ground. Anything to push against, beat against to dim the pain. Even for just a moment. A strange thought, when poison is sweeping through your veins, cold sweeping through him in its wake. But there it was.

His head would have hit the floor if warm arms hadn’t enveloped him at the last second. They absorbed the shaking, and gentle hands began stroking at his hair. Casey finally relaxed enough that his ragged breath could be heard, gasps of pain that shook his body further. All that grounded him was the soothing presence RJ offered.

He didn’t know how long he lay there, poison surging through his system, sweating and gasping and struggling to hold on to sanity. His eyes glazed over, his vision swimmy and the air he breathed hurt his skin. It took far too long for his eyes to close, oblivion overtaking the pain.

When he woke, RJ was still holding him, meditating with one hand pressed against his chest, monitoring his breath and heartbeat. Knowing he was safe, Casey slipped back into sleep.

 

The battle of the next morning was scarcely better than the day before. While nobody was badly hurt this time, Lily’s actions were reckless. Without the bike upgrade RJ had hastened to finish in the early hours of the morning, Casey wasn’t sure he’d have been up for the fight. Which made him wonder, as he looked up at the windows that let in a bit of moonlight, just how much he had to catch up on before he would stop being dead weight.

He hadn’t realized Lily was _that_ fond of him already that she would go out and fight alone to protect him. He also hadn’t realized just how much he didn’t want anyone to do that. Ever. Having a sister figure on the team was lovely (though her complete disregard for his teasing had been disappointing), but it did remind him once again of all he’d lost. Rosie was fine, he supposed, she’d been on a Ranger team. But that wasn’t entirely comforting, as she had always played little sister to his big brother when they visited, though she was several times as smart as him, and two years older. Lauren, always avidly at work on her prescribed mission, isolated from Jayden and trapped in her grief at their parent’s deaths.

The bubble battle was fun though, even with Theo’s incredulous disapproval. Even with RJ making Casey clean up the floor once it was over.

But as the night moved on, Casey found himself unable to sleep, as usual. This time a phantom pain tingled along his veins, pain merely remembered from the night before, but present. All too present.

“That poison would have killed a normal human.” RJ’s voice came from his chair, the tone deceptively light and carefree.

“Yeah, well, I’m not normal,” Casey replied, trying and failing to match flippancy. “I’m a Power Ranger.”

RJ leaned his chair back, lying flat. “Try again amigo, even the Power wouldn’t have saved you from this one. I contacted my cousin when your fever started spiking, the Power only goes so far before you need an antidote.”

Casey sighed, walking over to the chair and pushing the back up again before digging his fingers into RJ’s shoulders.

“My family’s complicated.” He said, hoping the massage would be enough to distract his master from the question.

For a while, it seemed to. But as he finished, and turned to go to bed, RJ grabbed his arm, pulled him in front of the chair, and lifted his two shirts to show his smooth, belly-bottonless stomach.

“Mariner Bay, huh?” RJ muttered, raising an eyebrow at Casey. But he didn’t inquire further. Casey wasn’t sure whether to be happy about that, or just confused. RJ could be infuriatingly blank when he wanted, and that was one of those times.

It didn’t even occur to him to ask about the power up until he was lying in his hammock again, staring at the ceiling as if it still had all the answers.

 

The next battle didn’t get easier. Sure, nobody was poisoned this time, but Theo’s derisiveness toward himself over his inability to defy the laws of physics was somewhat surprising to Casey. The man seemed so unshakable, but apparently that wasn’t true. When his confidence was shaken, Theo was oddly cruel. Without the control he relied on in his own actions, he took it out on his friends. Added to that his inability to function overall leading to both Casey and Lily being thrown around by Rinshi, Camille and the ridiculous Geko for a few hours, Casey was sore. Irritated with Theo, and nursing bruised muscles. It had been easy to cheer Theo on when the battle hung on his abilities. It was harder, realizing that Theo probably could have done that all along, but didn’t because he was too proud.

So when Theo came and sat next to him during his nightly watch, Casey did his best not to glare. “Can’t sleep?” he gritted out.

“No.” Theo agreed. “Look, Casey, I wanted to apologize. I was late today, and that could have been costly.”

“Well, it wasn’t,” Casey replied, picking at the hem of his shirt, letting the red soothe him. “We’re alive, that’s what counts.”

Theo nodded, silence growing as they sat awkwardly on the stairs.

“We all have hang-ups,” Casey said, standing up. “I feel out of place, you hate failure. We’ll just, keep going.”

He headed to bed on that awkward note. He didn’t want to have that conversation. He didn’t want to face just how angry it made him that Theo would give up, when he had seen everyone he loved dead and kept going.

The fact that he had years to do it, somewhat immaterial.

 

Betrayal was always a weakness, Casey supposed, as he charged at Toad and Stingerella. _This is foolish,_ he thought, even as he tried to fight them. Jason’s disapproving glare flashed into his mind, The look had never been leveled at him in real life, he had always been a good student. But here he knew he was doing everything wrong. He was attacking alone when teamwork was an option. He was trying to prove his worth in the worst possible way.

But Theo’s words _just the new guy,_ rang in his mind. Echoes of their conversation a few nights before. It soured Casey to ever working with him. Who would do that? Learn of a friend’s weakness and then throw it in their face? Even more than that, why would he? Would it have taken that much out of Theo to say, “could you not come Casey, I like to just spend time with Lily, alone”? Casey could have eaten with RJ, or even helped him with the new weapon. Sounded more fun than watching his friends pointedly not-flirt with each other.

Even though he knew he was losing the battle for them, it felt _good_ to batter fruitlessly at the Toad monster. It was pointless, he wasn’t going to win, but letting the furious energy out, blows he wished he could bring against his friend to try and knock _sense_ into him, felt wonderful.

And then they’d lost.

 

And then they’d won.

Lily telling them off seemed to do the trick. Her allegations were slightly off, but then she didn’t know about his and Theo’s nighttime conversation. She was right about one thing, however, and that was that this was most definitely not the prom. It wasn’t hard to make up with Theo with her fury ringing in their ears, nor even difficult to go out and distract the monsters until the cannon was ready.

Though having the Toad’s claws at his throat (and what kind of a toad had _claws?_ ) was rather disconcerting. They’d lived. They worked together, they moved on, and hopefully Theo would let Casey fit in now, even if he wasn’t great with change.

As Casey had said the other night, they all had their hang ups. It really wasn’t Theo’s fault he didn’t know Casey wasn’t interested in Lily. At all.

And in that, the new guy allegation wasn’t wrong. Even as Theo knew little about Casey, Casey couldn’t say he knew that much about Theo either. Though, of course, they all knew nothing at all about RJ.

The man was an anomaly, one moment caring about nothing more than their work ethic, the next sending a shadow of his wolf spirit to the fight, shadowing their movements as if he could help from such a distance. His spirit could knock a few Rinshi off balance, Casey supposed, and probably had in the past, but nothing more.

Even as he did that, he would train them with an attitude of, “if the others die while you’re training, then they die. Nothing to be done.” Harshly motivating. Mostly just harsh. But also, practical. As much as he hated when RJ pulled that card, Casey had to admit he wasn’t wrong. Lily and Theo would go and help those in need whether he could be there or not, and while their triangle was what made their power so great, they could function without it if they needed to. If they were destroyed while one of them was training then everything would fall apart. But what else could be done? It was their job to protect people.

Not for the first time, Casey wondered what Jason would have done. He was lucky, from all the stories Casey gathered that his team was already strong. They already had their patterns down. They knew how to fight, and how to work together seamlessly. From the stories he’d gathered, it had taken evil spells to get them to quarrel, otherwise they were perfectly matched as a set. They could break off into smaller groups and fight when they needed to, they could trust each other’s skills.

Lily and Theo couldn’t trust Casey’s abilities yet. Casey couldn’t trust Theo not to crumble at the drop of a hat. Lily was really the only part of their team that was completely solid, and even then she spent an inordinate amount of time keeping them from bickering.

Getting along was vital. Being a team was vital. But as Casey waited for weariness to set in after the adrenaline, he found himself wishing for home.


	9. Chapter 9

9.

“I never wanted to be in charge.” Casey said, coming up behind RJ. He was sitting in his chair, fiddling with a small device that Casey couldn’t tell from any other RJ fiddled with regularly.

“Whether you want it or not is immaterial,” RJ replied, using a subdued version of his cheerful teacher voice. “What’s important is that you are.”

“Yeah, I got that,” Casey replied, sitting cross-legged and leaning against the back of the chair. “But why me? Why not Lily? She’s holding the team together more than I am.”

“True,” RJ agreed absentmindedly, the chair rocking back a bit as he adjusted himself in it. He still smelled fishy, like a somewhat polluted river filled with algae. “But she’s not the leader of the team. You are.”

“I don’t want it.” Casey said again. “The weight, it’s too much, RJ.”

The man behind him sighed, sending vibrations through the chair. “If you did want it, Casey, you wouldn’t be ready.”

“I’m not ready now!” Casey insisted, shoving his back against the chair for emphasis. “I almost got us all destroyed the other day, just because Theo called me the new guy! And today, Fran,”

RJ sighed again, sitting forward in the chair to put the project down. “She’s another issue entirely.”

“I’m sorry that I handled it so badly,” Casey said, curling his knees up to his chest. “I just, hate it. Being the new kid. Trying to lead when I don’t trust my own abilities-“ he cut himself off, shaking his head.

“Well, in the end it ended up well,” RJ said, joining him behind the chair, “Fran accepted the bonus as a one day only thing, so at least you only have to work two days to make up for it.”

Casey snorted, “As if you really couldn’t afford it. If you can take on four staff members in a day, you can manage paying one extra.”

“Ah,” RJ said, glancing at Casey from the corner of his eyes. “You noticed that.”

“Yeah. Going from no staff to a full staff in a day is impossible, unless you had backing.” Casey replied, shifting his legs so they stretched out in front of him. “Or insane savings, but then you’d be losing money fast.”

RJ laughed, a small huff of air that Casey might have missed under other circumstances. “And that, my friend, is why you’re the leader.”

“What?” Casey asked without thinking, turning to face RJ again. The change back to the original subject seemed, out of place.

“You’re always thinking,” RJ said simply, “Can’t say I always know what you’re thinking, but you know how to size up a situation. It’s useful.” He added, his tone returning to joking.

“I hadn’t thought about it that way.” Casey admitted. “Maybe I don’t think enough.”

RJ smiled at him, looking almost sad. Instead of responding, he put a hand on Casey’s shoulder, and they sat there together as the shadows of the night floated around the room.

 

Lily’s new master came as a surprise, the extra power granted to her by the extra training rather nice. It did mean that she went off to train with Master Phant twice a week, leaving more time for Casey and Theo with RJ, and more shifts for both of them on days she was gone.

Which was what led to a mouthy child stealing Casey’s tip when he was in a rather bad mood. It wouldn’t have broken bank for him to return the kid’s quarter, not like they wouldn’t have fished the money out of the broken machine eventually anyway. But because he was tired, and the kid had an attitude, somehow it ended up making more sense to chase the kid all over town rather than letting him get away with five dollars.

The right way versus the easy way. It had been years since he’d thought about that skateboard. Uncle Bulk had tried to save up to buy it for him for Christmas, but a fire in the restaurant had meant Christmas was a bit thin that year, even with Jason, Adam and Uncle Spike pitching in to ensure that Casey had presents of some kind. He had saved up money over a year for the skateboard because even his savings had gone toward keeping the restaurant going. Uncle Bulk hadn’t even realized what Casey was doing until the repairs were over, and it had been more than a month after Casey should have been able to buy the skateboard.

He could understand the child’s desire for the kite. Hell, when he was the kid’s age he was still living on KO35 and had everything he could ever want or need. His mother had seen to it that if he had the slightest desire, he could figure out a way to make it happen. Magic, synthetron, sewing and crafting, there was always a way. It wasn’t until he came to Earth that he realized people couldn’t always have their desires. Or even enough to live.

Which made his black and white morality play with the child a little unfair. But in the end, he hoped the kid had learned a lesson. Plus he found a way to defeat the monster in the kite fabric, which was fortunate. Five dollars well spent, all said.

But as the battle was over, he thought on the kid further. There was sorrow, deep and unrelenting in the kid. His spirit was completely hidden away, which was rare with children. They usually had little to no ability to hide their feelings, and as such their spirits would usually be prowling around them. This kid was just, blank.

Curious, he decided to follow the kid the next time he saw him, see if he couldn’t find out more.

 

More was found. The kid wasn’t poor, but he wasn’t rich either. His home was a six room building, a story and a half. A typical rectangular home in one of the outer suburbs. His family was lower middle class, and they did fairly well by themselves. It seemed the kid’s father was laid off from work for a few weeks, so money was a bit tighter than usual. It also seemed like the family was grieving, though Casey couldn’t tell for whom. Aside from the grief nothing seemed amiss. Nothing abusive, nothing too problematic, though some of the weeds in the garden looked like they could do with less monster slime feeding them.

So when he next saw the kid, he offered a proposition.

Work was never so easy as it was that day. True, collectively he, Lily and Theo were ten dollars down, but the kid had his kite, and at the end of the day he had earned it properly. He would still have to learn how to find a job on his own someday, but Casey could hardly preach about that. He’d had a job and a destiny tossed on him without a by-your-leave.

Regardless, the quiet pride he could see in RJ’s eyes, knowing what happened as he always seemed to, was well worth it. Not to mention an easy day at work.

 

Theo found another master as well. Master Swoop was, different. His attitude was much closer to RJ’s than any other master they’d met. He had the presence of Master Mao, and the appearance of someone from The Matrix. The trench coat in particular made him cut quite the impressive figure. Casey figured it fit with the bat theme. He’d probably end up wearing orange and black for the rest of his life once he stopped being a Ranger.

The effect Master Swoop had on Theo was astonishing. As jealous as Casey found himself, that Theo got to work with such a great Master, he was glad for him. The peace that seemed to settle over Theo at being told to deal with just one thing at a time was striking.

Beyond that, the battle with the twin birds wasn’t remarkable. Theo adapted the “just before they’re destroyed” method of rescue, which was both irritating, and good enough for Casey. He was happy with not being dead.

The only negative outcome of the day, as far as Casey could see, was Theo’s new habit of floating above their heads in meditation. It was disconcerting, and made him check the ceiling for any sign of him each time he entered a room.

Their next battle was far more devastating. While they had mastered the art of dealing with monsters that fly, they weren’t prepared for a sea master. They weren’t prepared for any of what came their way, really. Camille revealing herself to have fooled Lily, in turn Lily’s self-recrimination for trusting people too much. For all that Theo had convincingly argued for trusting, Casey could see the series of events was taking its toll on Lily.

He found her in the parlor that night, still cleaning the tables mindlessly.

“Hey,” he said, putting chairs up on the tables. “You should get to bed, I’ll finish up here.”

“I’m fine, Casey,” she snipped back, “Leave me alone.”

“Yes, you definitely sound fine,” Casey agreed, sarcasm light and tasteless on his tongue. “I realize it’s none of my business, but isn’t it important that we deal with this?” The thunk of a chair on the table sounded hollowly, punctuating his words.

“I’ve already had it out with Theo,” Lily replied sharply, “I was wrong to trust her-“

“But I don’t think you were,” Casey cut in firmly, walking over to the table she was working on, and grabbing a chair. “She didn’t kill you today, and I don’t think it was because she’d hesitate to kill,” he sighed, folding his hands over the back of the chair, sitting down backwards so he could face her. “I think she couldn’t bear to repay kindness with complete betrayal.”

“Didn’t she, though?” Lily asked, tossing her rag into a bucket of soapy water. “She showed me that it’s my fault we have another enemy! I told her to get a new boss, and she did!”

“Yeah,” Casey agreed mildly, “But on the flip side we know what Camille in disguise looks like now, she can’t do that again. Besides, she knows where we live now. I don’t see any Rinshi. Do you?”

“Well, no,” Lily admitted, her face shadowed as she considered what he was saying.

“Then maybe,” Casey said, leaning forward with a bright grin, “You’re a pretty good judge of character after all.”

 

Though Lily was back in fine form by the next week, their problems remained. They lacked any way to counter the amazing power Jelica challenged them with. With Lily and Theo both training with their new masters whenever they had enough spare time, only Casey had any hope of learning what they needed. He knew it, everyone else knew it.

RJ was unusually resistant to it, however, insisting on basic training that inevitably led to a great many bruises. Balance on the books, then fall off of them. Balance on your toes on the books, then fall off of them. Don’t be distracted, or you’ll fall again- whenever Casey brought up the subject he would redirect the conversation, avoid, or outright deny any need. Each time he suggested it, Casey could see pain and no small amount of fear in his master’s eyes.

But because it was necessary, and in no small part because Casey desperately hated feeling like he was behind Theo and Lily, training wise, he kept asking. The desperation of his last misdirection, “six horses, a toilet plunger and a wireless mouse” really should have clued him in to how personal it was.

But he didn’t let it go. He found his new master, and he had never seen RJ so lost. So frightened, and resigned to an inevitable, _something_ that Casey couldn’t fathom.

It was something Casey had begun to notice, he could track RJ’s moods easily enough. When RJ was pleased with something he would be flippant, complain, distance himself. When he was sad, worried, he would stick close by. Almost as though he was afraid of losing his rangers. As if he really did acknowledge that any of them could be destroyed, or killed, at any time.

He was also a master of evasion.

Which was how Casey found himself chasing the wolf spirit, all he could see of RJ, down to a random beach. RJ wasn’t there, of course, it would’ve been too convenient. Camille, however, was.

Fighting with his new sabers was exhilarating, a sense of _rightness_ flowing through him at the ability to slash through his enemies. As if he had claws. As if he _was_ the power flowing through him. The power was smoother than his skills with nunchaku offered him, faster, and without fear of failure. Something he had learned bits of in the past that now came easily.

But as he fought the monster, he realized that his balance was perfect. The stances he had drilled so thoroughly with RJ, the calmness of mind from meditation, all of it through RJ’s insistence.

 _He’s prepared me for battle,_ Casey realized, slashing at the monster particularly viciously. _He’s prepared me to survive._

It also said a lot for how much RJ cared that the next time Casey saw him, he was moping. Not in a masterly, I am meditating and improving myself so leave me alone, sort of way. More a lovestruck teenager who couldn’t control the world way. Trying to throw playing cards into a hat.

There was no way to make that sound better.

Even so, RJ managed to, flippantly flipping it around. What if he was trying not to get them in the hat, indeed? Unfortunately it wasn’t quite enough to convince Casey that they were okay. RJ was radiating distress, even Theo and Lily had noticed, and they weren’t nearly as in tune with RJ’s vibe as Casey.

But as the story of his past unfolded, Casey’s guilt grew. “His way, or the highway,” RJ said as though it were the most reasonable of choices to offer one’s child.

“And you chose the highway,” Casey couldn’t help but half-ask.

RJ’s face was Casey’s response, a resigned motion around the loft. This life he had, everyone here, they were here only because he had chosen the highway. He had chosen a life different from what his father had wanted, and became a master in his own right.

Casey couldn’t imagine it, on more than one level. His family would never have given him such a choice, and if they had he doubted he’d have the strength to leave them. The knowledge jolted in his stomach, making him halfway want to cry, halfway want to hug his master. “There’s more than one way to do things,” Casey said, meeting RJ’s gaze. “You taught me that.”

RJ didn’t blink, but there was a tiny shift in his head, tilting just slightly more to the left, as if surprised. Smiling, Casey walked the very few steps between them, and lay a hand on RJ’s shoulder, comforting as RJ might. This time, he did blink, and his body stiffened. But underneath, his eyes were warm, fond, smiling at Casey as if he had fixed something. Then without a word, Casey headed out to find the others.

 

They were sulking. Or at least, Master Finn seemed to be. Skipping stones wasn’t exactly the best way to plan taking out the enemy. It was, however, a great chance to prove a point, and he found a flat rock, and did so.

“Ironing shirts,” he said with amusement, that day springing into his mind clearly. RJ had brought him in from the Pizzaria to iron all of everyone’s clothing. He hadn’t questioned it particularly, nor when the next day he took him out to a lake and had him skip rocks to his hearts content. He still wasn’t sure how that helped with fighting, but it had been fun, and he had seen a side of RJ, while out skipping stones that he hadn’t before. There had been a peace about his face that Casey had never seen, not even when RJ was meditating. He wasn’t acting as Casey’s master, a childlike glee that had nothing to do with his usual flippancy had overtaken his face as he started a stone skipping contest. He won, of course, but Casey had done his best. They laughed together, and for a little while he had seen a shadow of stress lift off of RJ. He hadn’t even realized it was there, it was always there, a tightness in his jaw. A shadow behind his eyes. The slight hesitation before he burst into an insane lesson. Without it RJ seemed younger, freer. It was a memory Casey cherished. It had marked a change in their relationship, a change from RJ simply teaching Casey when he had time, or had to, to their routines melding together. Meditation, katas, cleaning, cooking, all of it blended into constant learning.

There wasn’t any way he could make the others understand all of that in as short of time as he had on hand. But the point was made. Where before Master Finn had been radiating frustration, the shark spirit swimming around him in agitation, he seemed more thoughtful. Calmer. Almost as if he was considering what Casey had to say.

He could hope.

But his concern shifted nicely to Camille and another monster attack. Casey had no doubt they had been watched, and Camille was probably just waiting for the gang to all be there so she could be sure none of them would interrupt whatever other plans she had. It didn’t matter that it worked, he didn’t have that much choice in the matter.

He was peripherally aware of Master Finn being attacked by Dai Shi, and by the time he sensed RJ had joined the battle they were far too embroiled in the megazord battle for him to do anything besides pray that neither of them would be badly hurt. He could sense when the Wolf attacked, raw power and protection, sending the lion spirit away.

If he added some extra spin to their final attack, Theo and Lily didn’t comment on it.

 

Probably the weirdest thing in the aftermath of their battle was finding Master Finn making pizza in a Hawaiian shirt. There was nothing strange about making pizza, if the two masters were going to get along it was inevitable, pizza was practically RJ’s way of showing affection. If he liked you, you’d end up cooking for him sooner or later in a strange sort of acceptance.

For all that, RJ did look mildly disturbed as his father put a hand on his shoulder, speaking words of praise for once in his life. He covered it with a smile, but Casey could see his stance was somewhat tense, easily explained by his leaning on the counter, and his eyes were still reflecting some doubt.

It struck him later, after all of the pizza was made and the customers gone, that he himself was also a father-son project. He paused in his sweeping, the tables already wiped, the chairs already sitting upside-down atop them. Wiping a hand over his forehead, Casey considered the thought, turning it over in his head.

On the one hand, he was a useful bridge between the two men. He had no doubt the two would have their differences again in time, certainly RJ seemed unprepared to accept the affection that Master Finn was all too eager to offer, now that he saw he was wrong. It made perfect sense to Casey, RJ had to have been little more than a child when his father tossed him away. If he hadn’t known KO35 was under attack, and that his mother just desperately wanted him safe, he probably wouldn’t have trusted the affection Uncle Bulk had offered him. Nor the teaching of Jason, and Adam’s warm advice. Even Tommy’s occasional instructions, when Jason and Adam had to be away and Rocky was unable to take over the dojo for a day. None of it would have been the same to him.

“Are you going to finish the floor?”

Theo’s voice broke him out of the stream of thought, startling him. Shaking his head slightly, as if to clear it, Casey turned back to his job.

“Casey,” Theo said, his hand suddenly on Casey’s, gently taking the broom from him. “I’ve got this. Go talk to RJ, he was asking where you were.”

Casey muttered thanks, striding back toward the loft only to find RJ was waiting for him in the kitchen. He was staring at a ball of dough that looked thicker than usual, even in the dim light.

“What’s up?” he asked, not looking away from the strange ball of dough.

RJ grinned infectiously. “I’m trying a new recipe, sugar cookie dough pizza! With pineapple and bananas,” his grin faltered, “and, bananas…”

Casey smiled back at him, bleakly. “You’re not doing too well,” he said, echoing their earlier conversation.

RJ tilted his head ever so slightly, the only acknowledgement Casey would get, he knew. “You seemed troubled,” was his verbal reply.

Casey shrugged, taking a deep breath and leaning his hands on the counter. “Today made me think about family, is all.”

“Bad memories?” RJ prodded, taking a rolling pin and seeming to focus his energy on flattening the ball of cookie dough in front of him.

“Some,” Casey admitted, “and some good. I grew up in Angel Grove,” he let the statement hang, RJ’s hands stilling for a brief moment at the city’s name. The silence began to drown them, even as RJ started to roll the dough again.

“A monster killed them,” Casey said abruptly, “I wasn’t at home, and when I got back the house was gone. Their work places were gone. Everything was, gone.” He stared at RJ’s hands, finding comfort in the soothing motion of the rolling pin over the dough. His master’s knuckles were white from clutching the pin so hard, but the movement remained steady.

“I couldn’t believe they were dead, I thought they would find me,” Casey admitted, feeling his arms shake, leaning on them more as if it would justify the tremors. “But they never came. I was put in child services, and no one from Mariner Bay came to get me.”

“Casey,” RJ breathed out, his hands stilling.

Casey quickly flashed a grin, pushing back from the counter. “Anyway, I’m just glad you’ve mended fences with your dad a bit. I know it wasn’t easy, and you’ll have to work on it, and nothing’s perfect, but I hoped it would help-”

“Casey,” RJ said again, putting down the rolling pin and striding over to gently grasp his shoulders. Carefully, projecting his movements he pulled Casey into a hug, holding him tightly.

Casey’s throat closed as he leaned into the touch. It had been so terribly long since anyone had hugged him. RJ was warm, his arms strong but gentle, and his breathing calm and even despite the stress of the day. Giving in without a fight, Casey leaned his head against his master’s shoulder, accepting the comfort he didn’t even realize he had wanted for so long.

The moment passed, and RJ let him go. But Casey felt as though a sliver of the shadow that followed him around day by day had faded, just a little. The smile on his face a little brighter than it had been. A strange ball of warmth glowing somewhere in his chest. RJ went back to his pizza, and Casey broke out the fudge sauce.

No way was he having carob, _or_ tomato on a cookie pizza.


	10. Chapter 10

10.

Casey sat on RJ’s bed, the purple covers mildly comforting as he held his head in his hands, the events of the day replaying before his eyes again and again. Defeating the strange toadstool creature, the challenge, and the way Jarrod played with them just as he had the senior student on the competition day, so long ago. Weeks, months, it felt like an eternity. RJ’s concern, the rescue. They were about to be blown to bits by Dai Shi, and RJ just, gave himself up as they lay there on the gravelly ground.

They were fools. Such fools to think that they could defeat Jarrod without trouble. They had learned nothing from the poison incident, it seemed. At least then it had been Casey hurt, he could blame himself and reap the rewards of his foolishness. He could survive the poison. But this?

RJ. Gone. Taken, maybe even to be killed. They took him alive, but they had no guarantees he would stay that way. No guarantees he wouldn’t either, he supposed. Clearly Dai Shi, or Jarrod, whichever, wanted him for something. But once that was complete? It was hard to say.

_Now I am your master._

Jarrod’s words kept replaying, his master. He had two masters just this morning. Now he had one. Or maybe three, if Jarrod ever seriously considered trying to convert them to evil. He was strong enough to defeat and capture them, if he wanted to, Casey had no doubt he could do it.

He lay back on the bed, taking in the oregano smell that was so very _RJ._

_Stand up, and move kid._

Jason’s voice echoed in his head, words he had told him whenever he wanted to give up. _Stand up, or the battle is over. Stand up Casey, and there’s a chance you can keep fighting. Fight until you can’t stand up again. If you can do that, even if you lose, you still know you won against your doubt._

It wasn’t martial arts advice, not really. No good karate sensei would tell their students to fight to the bitter end. In a match, there was more honor in respectful defeat than in struggling on to win even when you knew your opponent had won. But in a battle, in a fight to the death everything was different. On the field of battle that day they had not stood up until it was too late, and the price for their inability to move was RJ.

_You know what to do._

But he didn’t. All he had to work with was the instruction to return to basics. What that meant in the greater picture of achieving great power in a very short amount of time? He couldn’t say. He had toyed with the idea of calling KO35, somehow, to see if his mom was still alive. But he hadn’t accessed the morphing grid since Angel Grove, unable to face the broken shards of the connections to those he loved, and that was the surest way to see if his mom was still alive. Surely Astronema could bring down even a villain of Jarrod’s caliber, or at least hold him down long enough for Casey to save RJ. He also considered the possibility of calling in Rose, she had a team of her own that hadn’t lost their powers. It was entirely possible that the Indiana Jones Rangers could team up with them to save their mentor. Or they could call in their other masters, enlist their aid and hope between the six of them it would be enough.

But none of that had anything to do with anything RJ had told them to do. Groaning, Casey made his way back to the main room, plopping down on a box, and returning his head to his hands. At least that way, perhaps Lily and Theo might have something to say.

They didn’t for quite a while. They could hear Fran downstairs, handling all the customers as usual. It was just another twinge of guilt, another twist to the knife that was sticking all of them. Casey began to feel as though his limbs were being flooded with ice, magic from the core of himself that he rarely accessed, the malicious power begging to be allowed to tear Dai Shi’s palace to the ground, destroying every brick, rinshi and person inside.

It wasn’t a solution for obvious reasons. But a large part of him wished he could go with it.

“What do you think RJ meant when he said, “you know what to do”?” Lily asked from the floor.

Casey took a deep breath, wanting to bang his head against a wall. Standing he explained, “He _meant_ do exactly what he told us to do. We go back to basics, all the way back to the beginning.”

He wasn’t quite sure how that translated into the Forbidden Room in Lily’s mind, but as he said to Theo it may well be their only hope. It was better than any of his ideas at any rate.

So they flew, taking the megazord using the bat spirit to hasten their journey. It took them only an hour to make it the distance that had taken them half a day before. Hopeless determination spurring them on.

 

Master Mao was not helpful. He seemed willing enough to hear about their predicament, far less willing to actually help them. Once again the icy magic began to flow toward Casey’s fingertips, this time with a fury aimed at Mao for standing in the way of their journey. He _needed_ to get to RJ, he _needed_ to do whatever it took and as everything kept blocking their way he found himself wishing he had just gone and destroyed the enemy temple. It was nice for Mao to not want them lost forever in the spirit realms. It would be nicer if it wasn’t keeping them from achieving their goal before Dai Shi decided to destroy RJ. Or kill him. Whichever came first, unless it was all at once. Sometimes it was the same thing.

“Master please, we can do this,” Casey all but begged, “we’ll find a way back.”

“It’s too risky,” Mao replied, and Casey’s heart sank. He began breathing as evenly as possible, trying not to focus on his frustration as Mao said, “The answer’s no.”

For a long moment there was silence, before Lily said, “Please! You have to take us!”

“It’s our only hope!” Theo chimed in.

“We won’t let you down,” Casey promised, “We’re not afraid.”

“You will be,” was all Mao replied, as if accepting the challenge of their bravery. He opened the portal, crying out with the effort, but let them through to the spirit world.

They walked in, the glowing, swirling energy enveloping them, dragging them in. He could hear Theo and Lily screaming, but the energy was soothing. Cold, icy cold and quite untame. But a familiar cold, one that had been haunting him all day.

It welcomed him home.

 

They landed on soft plants, and after glancing around their surroundings Lily and Theo began to chatter. Casey tuned them out for the most part, feeling the energy of this new world surrounding him. The plants around him were a bright pink, but still soft. In a dead world, but not dead. He didn’t feel out of place, but it also didn’t feel entirely right. As if he was in the _wrong_ afterlife scenario.

“-and hula girls?” Lily’s annoyed voice broke into his thoughts.

“Guys, we need to focus!” he snapped, his thoughts turning sharply back to RJ. But before they could make a plan they were attacked. The three masters, he realized at once, as a woman with dark hair launched herself at Lily, a tall, tan man attacked Theo, and an oversized man who pounded his chest and leapt into trees charged at him.

They lost, though with the grace they’d learned from losing so often to RJ and their other masters. They hadn’t come to win against their masters. They’d come to learn. First Lily, then Theo were banished to be tested.

“Bring it on, masters,” he said, suspense getting the better of him. _RJ,_ he thought as he felt himself being transferred to the test. _We’ll save you. Hang in there._

 

He found himself in his room from KO35. The bed, the slanting ceiling, and the sports flags his mother had made for him when he had begged to have a normal Earth boy’s room. That had been maybe a month before he had been taken to Earth.

Looking around, he was puzzled. The room held only good memories, joyful happenings. Then the closet began to glow, and shake. A voice yelled his name through the door, hoarse, harsh, coming at him. The voice of his kidnapper from so long ago.

Memories he didn’t know he had began to flash in his mind. _The room was dark, the closet closed tightly. He was in his bed, woken by the strange light. He opened the closet, then screamed as he saw the mirror. The monster. Its chest opened and he wasn’t in his room anymore. He wasn’t anywhere. Everything was different, and he could see his home fading away. He should have stayed away from the closet, mom, mommy!_

Coming back to himself with a gasp, Casey covered his ears. _“Stop it._ ” He cried. “ _Stop it, stop it, stop it!”_

“Stand up, Casey.”

Casey started, looking around himself, surprised to find himself face to face with Trini. Her face was warm, as he had remembered it. Her hands landed on his shoulders, forcing him to face her.

“Stand up Casey,” the specter coaxed. “Don’t forget the battle.”

“No, this can’t be happening again,” he said, facing her desperately. “Aunt Trini, it _can’t be happening._ ”

Trini smiled, and placed a kiss on his forehead. “If it cannot be, you must consider that perhaps it isn’t.” Then she faded away, as if she had never been there.

Taking a deep breath, Casey steadied himself, moving through the memory as best he could. “Maybe it isn’t happening,” he murmured, “Wait a minute,”

Slowly he forced himself off the bed, moving toward the doors, which had calmed as his mind did. Ignoring his memories, he grabbed the doors, throwing it open to find that the spirit world forest lay beyond.

Stepping through, he found Master Rilla waiting.

“Master Rilla,” Casey greeted, grinning. “I was never brave enough to relieve the memories of my kidnapping.”

The man’s face showed wear from many a jolly smile, but in that moment he was quite grave. “The losses of the past are a hard thing to face. I am proud of you.”

Casey grinned shyly, and waited as Theo and Lily joined him, the six of them forming an awkward circle in the clearing.

“You have passed our challenges,” Master Rilla said first.

“Our animal spirits will be with you now, but we have much more to teach you.” Master Lope said with great authority.

“No,” Lily protested, alarm crossing her face. “We can’t stay! We have to go back and help our master!”

“That is not possible,” Master Gwinn informed them gently, “You must stay here for eternity.”

“Eternity?” Casey burst out, even as Theo explained their destiny, Dai Shi, all the things that they should have considered before entering an unleavable realm.

Once again, Casey’s fingers began to tingle with power. It wasn’t nearly as cold here.

“There are times when even unbreakable rules can be bent,” Master Lope allowed, after brief conversation. “Go back, by what power you have. We cannot help you.”

“Fine by me,” Casey bit out, his hands shaking with effort. _Portal, open a portal,_ he thought to his hands, unwittingly beginning to move in the meditation movements his mother had taught him so long ago to help him control his powers.

As the whirling portal opened before him, he could hear Master Rilla call after them, “Know that your spirits will be stronger than you’ve ever imagined.”

 

They were transported to the sound of Jarrod yelling for them to return and fight. Confusing, since just the afternoon before they had taken RJ as the more worthy prisoner. All the same, Casey wasn’t about to complain about _not_ having to break into the fortress of doom. Or explain to Theo and Lily what he’d just done, for that matter.

The battle went predictably enough to start. They were tossed around painfully by Jarrod, as they had been the day before. But as they fought, Casey could feel the power building in his veins. It was raw, untrained, but exactly what he needed. Channeling it, he summoned the claw weapon, and felt the outer layer of his suit fade away, leaving white where red once was. Borrowed power with no specific owner of its own. Spirit world energy.

As he fought Jarrod, impossible maneuvers mere moments ago became easy. Theo and Lily easily dispatched their opponents, and from off to the side he could hear RJ tell Camille, “Those are my students, there’s nothing they can’t do.”

It warmed him, the affection in RJ’s weary voice. The slight catch in the man’s voice worried him though, even as he danced circles around Jarrod. The knowledge of Master Rilla’s power mixed with his previous knowledge, leading him to knocking Jarrod down without much of a fight. Using the power of masters was truly amazing.

Rather than finishing off Jarrod, they turned their attention to RJ. He was the one that mattered, after all. He seemed energetic enough as they cut him free, but his sarcastic, “Shocking,” as the monsters grew told Casey otherwise.

Regardless there was a monster to fight, and RJ’s amusement as he told them to combine their new zords was good to hear. Beating the heck out of the monsters didn’t hurt Casey’s mindset either.

Seeing RJ massage his shoulder in the aftermath didn’t help it.

 

Finding Fran had discovered their secret upon returning to the loft was the least of Casey’s worries. For all that RJ put up a good front Casey could see he was in pain. It took a while to get Fran to leave, but once they’d given all the explanations, he shooed Lily and Theo downstairs to deal with the restaurant.

With everyone out of the way, he turned to RJ. “Shirt,” he said sharply, “Off.”

“I didn’t realize it was monosyllable celebration da-,” RJ joked, his goofy charm breaking as he clutched at his shoulder.

Casey ignored him, grabbing their medical kit. It was pretty excessive, bruise cream was the least of it. They had everything from an IV setup to simple bandaids. In this case he got out antiseptic, basic cream for damaged skin and cold compresses. He also grabbed some bandages, ace wraps and joint braces, just to be sure.

He came back to find RJ waiting in his chair, stiff and silent, his injuries painful to see in the bright light of the loft. His back was one big bruise, seeping slightly with pus, though little blood had been shed. His shoulder was a nightmare, and Casey had noticed he was favoring his left foot. So he started there, checking for muscle damage, bone damage, and if there was anything beyond him. Finding only a minor turn, he sponge washed the foot before taking out the ace wrap, and wrapping the ankle as carefully as he could.

He moved up from there, checking RJ’s legs for blood, breakage or serious bruising, and found only some less serious bruises. Passing them over for then, he moved to his torso. There was a smattering of bruises on his front, so Casey turned his attention to the back.

Gently pushing RJ forward in his chair, Casey breathed deeply, his hands growing cold yet again. He dabbed at the skin with a damp cloth, then smeared antiseptic over the areas where the skin was broken, smoothing it on with a tip of his finger. He could feel how tense RJ was, and lay his hands on his shoulders, gently, making the master jump.

“Trust me, RJ,” Casey requested. “I just want to make sure you aren’t in more pain than you have to be.”

Reluctantly, RJ nodded, relaxing his muscles a little, hissing as he did so. Taking advantage of the trust, Casey lay his hands on his master’s back, closing his eyes and trying to remember lessons from so terribly long ago. He had already used these powers once that day, even without much memory of how to use them. _Surely,_ he thought, _I can do it again._

Sure enough, as he closed his eyes, he could hear RJ breathe in sharply at the relief that spread around his hands. When he opened them again the bruising had faded, as had most of the swelling. RJ’s back was still an alarming green color, but it was better than pus and black and violet.

“What did you do?” RJ asked as Casey moved his attention to his shoulder.

“No idea,” Casey replied absently, breathing heavily and trying to focus on healing again, properly. “A lot of forgotten things have been coming back to me today,” he admitted, as he coaxed the bruise into calming. As his hands rested on RJ’s shoulder, however, he could feel his master stiffening up again, pulling away.

“What is it?” he asked, letting his hands drop. The skin was almost back to normal anyway.

“Nothing,” RJ covered, quickly, flashing a bright smile at Casey, “It feels great amigo, thanks!”

Casey shook his head, sitting back on the floor and looking RJ over carefully, trying to determine what was so different. It didn’t take him long.

“Where’s the wolf?” Casey asked, shooting to his feet. “Jarrod didn’t-“

“No,” RJ cut in, grabbing Casey’s hand as he looked ready to storm straight back to fight Jarrod again. “He tried, but he failed. I’m just a little,” he rolled his shoulder gingerly, grimacing, “out of sync.”

Reluctantly, Casey relaxed, sitting back down on the arm of RJ’s chair, moving his attention to RJ’s head. “Is there any way I can help, RJ?” he asked as he ran his fingers through his thick hair, searching for bumps, cuts and tender spots.

“I’ll be okay, Casey,” RJ replied, truly relaxing into his chair for the first time since they got back. “I just need to rest.” He hissed as Casey found a tender spot on the back of his head, but Casey judged it not too bad. For a normal person, maybe a problem, but RJ was so far from normal, he was fairly sure he would meditate the bump away.

“Do you want me to call your dad?” Casey asked, kneeling in front of the chair again, his analysis done. “He probably felt the wolf’s struggle. I did, and I was in the spirit world.”

“What?” RJ asked, his eyes opening, “How did you get back?”

Casey shrugged, smiling crookedly. “Some rules are meant to be bent a bit. That’s not really the question right now.”

“Sure,” RJ said vacantly, laying his head back again, staring off through the wall. “He’ll be glad to know everyone’s alright.”

Sighing, Casey stood to go down stairs, “Something like that,” he agreed. Without really thinking about it, he stepped forward and pressed a kiss to the top of RJ’s head. “You scared us,” he said quietly. “Don’t do that again.”

Then he walked down to the kitchen, feeling RJ’s sharp eyes follow him as he left.


	11. Chapter 11

11.

Things were fairly quiet for a week and a half, presumably as Jarrod healed from the beating they’d given him. Casey wasn’t about to complain. RJ would seem fine one moment, the next he would be clutching his shoulder and running upstairs to deal with it on his own. Casey could only guess that it was the imbalance point, as RJ had been so protective of it, but it also made him wonder just how much pain RJ had been hiding from them all along.

He kept RJ’s secret about the attack on his wolf spirit, assuming that RJ would let them know if things got serious. But as timed passed and nothing seemed to improve, Casey had to wonder whether their master could heal from this wound. Outwardly he seemed fine, normal, until he didn’t.

It wasn’t healthy.

It was almost a relief when a random, pig themed monster showed up and decided to order a pizza. Admittedly his weapon of choice, a rope of meat, was bizarre and not terribly frightening. It reminded him of Jason’s stories of the monsters they’d fought in Angel Grove. Silly though it was, it gave them all something to let their frustration out on. It took them almost no time at all to defeat the thing, then head off toward home.

Only to encounter another, more prickly problem. A monster that jabbed Lily full of poisonous spikes. While unpleasant, Casey had to be glad it gave RJ something to do beyond just sitting and watching them. He seemed in dire need of something to make him feel useful, especially as the wolf spirit was clearly manifesting in his eating habits. It was disturbing.

But Lily took his ministrations badly, snapping at all of them. Admittedly, they had been calling her considerate till she hated the word. Not perhaps the epithets of a video game warrior, but certainly things a true warrior had to be. Then again, Casey supposed he hadn’t much liked being called the sweet child when he was young, much less now. But her confrontational attitude towards Theo, usually her favorite of them all, and her admittedly weak insult seemed irrationally out of character.

RJ and his “pulled muscle” distracted him before he could try and track Lily down to make sure she wasn’t suffering under the poison’s control or something. He’d heard many stories as a child of mind control incidents. They were fun as a story, but he doubted they were as fun when you were living them.

Nonetheless, Fran called them to help with the kid and parent customers that flooded in after school for a snack, followed an hour later by sports teams and after school clubs. When RJ told them to go, he grabbed Theo, hoping that RJ knew what he was doing.

He forced himself to ignore the cries of pain behind them. It wouldn’t help RJ if he made a scene. The man had been tortured, and his spirit damaged. The least they could leave him was some dignity in his pain.

 

Thankfully Fran sent them out when Lily came in, dressed to kill, though Casey wasn’t entirely sure that was a metaphor. He knew sweet people. When their tempers were let loose, trouble inevitably followed.

The loft offered just as much trouble, however, as the place was trashed and covered in hair. Or, fur. Casey wasn’t sure he wanted to know which. A sinking feeling settled in as he realized what it probably meant. All masters have animal forms, after all. That much hair didn’t come off of RJ’s head. Or the rest of him. After treating his wounds Casey could attest to how entirely not-hairy RJ was.

Was, being the operative word.

The monster alarm was both relieving, and frustrating. They needed to deal with Lily. They needed to find RJ. If it wasn’t his hair, after all, or fur, he might have been taken by a monster, or otherwise attacked. They couldn’t _know._

But they had to go.

They ran side by side, matching pace easily as they hastened to the docks. Once there, what they found made Casey’s blood run cold, though without any tingling of magic.

“What is that?” Theo asked.

“Half man, half wolf?” Casey guessed, trying not to think about what it probably meant for their master. The destruction in the area wasn’t minimal, if he survived the imbalance in his system the guilt-

Could be worried about later. They morphed, had their butts handed to them, then the wolf just, left, leaving them to the mercy of the porcupine creature. Who also handed their butts to them.

It just, wasn’t their day.

“I’m getting tired of this!” Casey said as he stood up for the upteenth time in a day. Only to relax back to the ground as Lily charged in on a motorcycle, and proceeded to jump off, kick the monster, and miraculously land on the motorcycle again.

He didn’t think about it too hard. It was good that she was back. Mind control broken, or, whatever. Master mode (he really should’ve thought of that before) megazord battle, and finally, _finally_ back to the loft.

But when they got there, despite Fran’s assurances that RJ had gone up there, he was gone.

Casey stayed up, sitting on the stairs. Waiting.

He didn’t come back until after they were working. It continued like that for three days.

 

“You’ve been avoiding me,” Casey said quietly, sitting behind RJ’s chair as he watched the news. “Are we going to start training again soon?”

“Some, things have come up,” RJ replied, his voice vacant, and in the reflection from one of the television screens Casey could see he was staring at his hand as if it had betrayed him.

“Wolfing out?” he asked dryly. _Rampaging around the city as a monster every night,_ he thought to himself.

RJ stiffened, “You knew?”

“I guessed,” Casey said gently, sliding closer along the floor to sit next to the chair, carefully only seeing RJ in the screen. “There aren’t that many wolf spirits in the area, after all. It was that, or Dai Shi got a piece of yours and made a monster out of it, and you’ve been avoiding me. Probably not Dai Shi this time.”

“Ah…” RJ said, clenching his hand into a fist. He opened his mouth, smiling as if to make his usual flippant point, but Casey could see as he drew a blank on what to say.

“Let us help you,” Casey said, “We can find a way-“

“Your job is to stop Dai Shi,” RJ said firmly, letting his hand drop. “Nothing can get in the way of that.”

“But-“

“No, Casey,” RJ said firmly, and Casey could see in the reflection the decision being made.

Taking a deep breath, Casey nodded to himself. “You’re going to leave. You’re going to leave us to face Dai Shi alone.”

“Casey,” RJ took a deep breath as well, struggling for the words. “I’m a liability now. I could get you guys hurt, or even destroyed. It’s just until I can find balance again.”

Casey could feel his eyes, asking for him to understand. So he stood, turning to RJ, and taking the hand he had been staring at as if it wasn’t his own, he kissed it. Just once on the back. “Don’t forget that you _are_ the wolf, RJ,” he said, turning to go back downstairs. “I won’t tell them till they need to know. Take care of yourself.”

He forced himself not to look back at his master. RJ seemed lost, unwilling to let others help him find himself again. If Casey had looked back, he was sure he’d beg him to stay. But RJ had always respected their choices. Time to return that questionable favor.

 

When the alarm went off the last thing he expected to find was a very human RJ fighting a clawed monkey, or any RJ at all for that matter. But there he was, definitely not doing his best but holding his own well enough, despite not standing up nearly as quickly as Casey would like.

Then the monkey hit RJ’s shoulder as he tried to defend his students, as he always did.

Then he turned into the wolf.

Casey felt this was probably a good time to state the obvious, since Lily hadn’t actually seen the wolf-man form yet. “Oh man, he’s the wolf we fought before!”

Then they were fighting once again, chaotically and for dear life as RJ slammed through them, aiming special attention toward Casey. They managed to hold him until he turned back.

Casey had never seen him look so desperately lost.

 

He supported RJ as they walked home. Lily and Theo collected his backpack and trailed behind, wondering about what was going on entirely too loudly.

“So, should I tell them now?” Casey asked.

RJ sighed, “Casey-“

“Look, you didn’t get very far,” Casey continued, ignoring him, focusing on the sidewalk ahead of them, motioning for Lily and Theo to clear the way, giving excuses to bystanders. The monkey’s claws had grabbed RJ hard enough that he had bled a bit once he turned back into his human form, though how it hadn’t happened immediately was something Casey chalked up to RJ being RJ. “I get that you’re our master and all, but, we can help you, RJ.”

RJ just shook his head and leaned a little more of his weight on Casey’s shoulder.

 

Their terribly not-victorious return to the loft was disheartening, especially with RJ continuing to insist that none of them could help despite the knowledge that he could become trapped as the wolf. Casey had met such people before, there was one he had met at the academy during his brief week there. The person was a snake, and had greeted Casey by slithering around him, laughing as only a snake can. The thought of RJ forever trapped as a wolf, a slightly deranged wolf that had been forced into that position, rather than choosing it, was terrifying. But still RJ refused to let them do anything, even telling them to steer clear of him.

If he was fair, Casey had to admit RJ wasn’t entirely wrong. They _couldn’t_ crawl into his head and fix things. But they could be there to make sure he didn’t hurt anyone, keep him from damaging himself, even try and help with his constant headaches the imbalance caused. They could care about him in all of his forms, not just as a human. As he would for them.

So when the alarm sounded, he turned to the others, “Lily, stay with RJ,” he tried, keeping his face as impassive as possible.

But Fran volunteered to stay instead. He couldn’t argue with the point that they were outmatched, even with all three of them they would be struggling to stay alive, much less win. So they left to fight, and he hoped Fran had things in hand.

Which wasn’t to say it was much of a fight. They were outmatched, as they had been an hour before. There was no particular reason for it that he could pin down, the monkey just seemed to be more powerful than the average monster.

As he was tossed to the ground for the fifth time, however, he felt a shift in the morphing grid. It felt like grinding, scraping, exhausted circuits that hadn’t been used for centuries were being forced from their moorings and snapped into place. An echo of potential he had felt every time he touched RJ.

He should have felt happier, as he felt RJ’s familiar presence arrive in time to see them hit by an explosive force. But part of him just felt sad. Fran must have helped RJ balance his spirit out, and it had taken all of half an hour to fix the problem. After days of begging to be allowed to help, he should have been happy.

But a part of him was mad. Frustrated that RJ would come to the battle without being sure of his recovery. Irritated that after rebuffing Casey for so long, RJ would accept Fran’s help. Unexpected pain, for what was about to happen. There was no time to analyze that pain, or think about it, only to watch as RJ pulled a morpher from a box, tossed the box aside, and let the world turn purple.

The explosion from the morph was huge. After so many years of disuse, the power certainly had some runoff. From there it was a matter of watching as RJ walked through the Rinshi, blasting them back without flinching at the spears surrounding him. He had his own mini canon, and when the monkey attacked him, he dispatched it with ease, all while they lay there watching.

“Not bad for your first morph,” was all he could say, unable to process what was happening entirely. Starting the megazord battle was a relief, there was nothing to think about except the fact that Lily was taking serious damage, and they were losing. Again.

Then came the wolf. Switching in for the wolf was, different. He had gotten used to his spirit combining with Lily and Theo. Adding in RJ was different. An unprecedented surge of energy, with RJ taking the lead. His movements were faster than the three of them had done before, and smoother. Where the monkey had been killing them, it was dead in mere minutes.

Then it was over.

RJ played his prank with the dog.

Casey hid in the kitchen as late as he could. He didn’t think about how he felt, he didn’t think about the events of the day. Pounding at the dough, all he thought of was how tired he was. Of what, he didn’t dare ask himself.


	12. Chapter 12

12.

In the following week, things changed quickly. To some degree he had expected it, in other ways he felt as if his world was falling the pieces and he just hadn’t seen it coming soon enough. RJ changed from their unassuming master to a Ranger Master overnight, switching out his comfortable shirts for a uniform, and joining in on their training sessions. Where before he let Casey set the times for training, today it seemed he had changed the time on him. They had forgotten, apparently, to let him know. So he was left out. His attempts to make the situation less horrible for himself were rebuffed, Lily informing him they’d already trained with weapons for the day. Instead it was RJ’s plan they would follow. It was RJ they would follow.

But taking a breath, he conceded that it could simply have been a mistake, and joined in the sparring. Even then, something was off. RJ wasn’t training them, he had seen RJ’s training. This was toying with them. He held them off easily, as he had when they first arrived. But now, rather than simply accepting with grace that they were students and so it must go, RJ held the holds until they either tapped out, or another of them helped. His grin was huge as he played, and Casey found himself growing increasingly frustrated with his attitude.

When the alarm sounded, he found himself wishing he could go make pizza. But fighting it was. Unfortunately said fight also started with him getting attacked with a trident that would have skewered him if he weren’t morphed. Lily and Theo weren’t in top form either, attacking individually and reactively. But Casey couldn’t speak with the air driven from his lungs, and the pain from the bruises that were all over his ribs.

RJ meanwhile had no particular trouble with his monster. Distracted by everything, Casey found himself without answers or plans. As they were thrown back again, and the others turned to him for ideas his mind went blank. Grief, a voice in the back of his head whispered. You’re feeling grief.

Which was nice to have answered, but in the time it took for him to realize that, RJ had issued orders. Orders that could have hurt Theo and Lily. Orders they followed without question, and were grateful for afterwards. Even though they could have been destroyed by RJ’s attack, they viewed it as a win because the monsters were driven back.

So of course, right after being beaten black and blue by a monster, they went straight to morphed training.

 

As usual, RJ handed their butts to them without much of a problem. When it came to firing their cannon at RJ, however, Casey just felt tired. What was the point? They already knew RJ outmatched all three of them for power and training. He was their master, of course he would always win. He’d adjusted his power levels down just to be sure he wouldn’t hurt them. At full strength, RJ could probably have taken out all of the monsters they’d fought before on his own, and never had to bother with the constant frustration they’d gone through.

What was the point, then, of all of their fighting? Why had they bothered when their masters could have managed it quite easily? If the four living masters had joined together, surely Dai Shi wouldn’t have even been a problem.

Casey barely felt the blast as they were thrown back.

“What went wrong?” Theo asked, “I thought you adjusted your morpher.”

“It wasn’t my morpher that was too strong,” RJ explained, concern etched into his face as it hadn’t been for days. A shadow of his pre-ranger self slipping through. “One of your animal spirits wasn’t up to strength.”

Casey took a deep breath, and walked away. He wanted to run, to escape, to just _get away_ from the feelings of shame, frustration and being inherently lacking. But he kept just enough of his dignity to keep walking.

 

“You know they never go in when you’re angry.”

RJ’s bright voice slipped through Casey as he grabbed at the basketball, dribble and throw, dribble and throw. Mildly better than throwing cards into a hat, he told himself sharply. Just keep dribbling, throw, eventually it’ll get in. “I’m not angry,” he replied, “Just,”

“Just what?” RJ asked, sounding genuinely confused as to why he would be struggling. As if he really hadn’t been paying attention to what he was doing, to what his actions were doing to Casey.

As if he didn’t know the pain that Casey had felt when he got there, isolated amidst a world of martial arts, Rangering and expectations that no one could meet. As if he hadn’t watched as Casey struggled through each kata, trying to catch up with two people who had been studying this every day of their lives for years on end, trying to master techniques that he shouldn’t have been able to. If he wasn’t a demon, if he hadn’t been magically created with connections to the Morphing Grid, Casey knew it was unlikely he’d have survived the first few battles. It had been baptism by fire, he had fought against becoming leader, he had fought for it, he had fought for his friends and without so much as a word of warning, RJ had taken it all. He was back where he started. The least powerful of the team, unable to even use his mind to save them as he had for so long. He couldn’t even stop fighting long enough to grieve, grieve for the changes in RJ, for the roles he had lost as a result of the change, for the trust he apparently never had from RJ. He couldn’t even grieve for the nameless feeling in the back of his throat that closed up when RJ looked at him as he was now, with earnestness and full attention. As if he was important, as if he mattered.

But vocalizing the depth of his feelings was something else again. He stumbled through the basics, the struggle he’d gone through to get here, the feeling that it was taken from him in a moment, without anything to be said or done about it. Grief.

“Maybe I got a bit excited about being a ranger,” RJ admitted, “But the Tiger leads this team man, not the wolf.” His hands punctuated his point, insisting. But Casey couldn’t help but look away. Dribble. Shoot. Forget.

And when Theo and Lily headed out to battle, once again held back with the knowledge that if they die, they die, the position of ultimate failure they somehow always came back to, Casey felt his heart break just a little more.

 

He watched on the screens, wondering if this gut-wrenching fear for his friends was something RJ had felt all the time. But after a very few minutes, it grew old.

“We should go help Theo and Lily,” he said firmly as he could.

RJ was in full master mode, a slight smile on his face while his eyes echoed the weight of the worlds. “A bent arrow doesn’t fly straight.”

“I’m not a bent arrow!” Casey snapped back, acknowledging silently to himself that wasn’t the strongest of comebacks. Or even terribly honest. He did feel somewhat bent out of shape. Thankfully, RJ didn’t press the point.

Instead, they played basketball with the fate of the world on the line. It was refreshing, the first lesson he’d had since RJ had been captured by Dai Shi. What is a leader, was the question he hadn’t been asking, apparently. Finding the correct question resolved, almost everything in his mind. His job was to get the basketball into the hoop no matter what, no matter how uncertain he was. At any cost.

And if that meant throwing himself in front of a blast, trusting that either he would survive (and given his questionable parentage, he probably would) or RJ would offer a solution that could save him, that was okay too. It might have been wiser to morph before arriving, but given the eleventh hour nature of their arrival as it was, he couldn’t really regret the potential cost to himself.

RJ’s call of his name as he ran toward danger, however, was different. Something to consider later. After considering how much easier it would’ve been if their suits had come equipped with satellite dishes that could deflect blasts back at monsters. His fingers were burned badly, and it would hurt for a while, but if the suits had that function his fingers would have been fine.

Beyond that, he found the battle went smoothly. He worked with RJ to stop one monster, while Theo and Lily focused on the other. Combining their powers to destroy the monsters was oddly obvious once his mind had cleared of his fears, and the monsters went down, and grew, without much effort.

As for the megazord battle, lending his spirit to RJ while fighting with another’s was terrifying. Feeling the spirit leave him to be used by another was exhausting, and the power that was at the back of his mind that was RJ’s, but not, and yet somehow not a part of him either. The battle was exhilarating, and when they had won, he realized the majority of his grief had passed.

And the awful taste of chocolate anchovies drove the rest from his mind. It didn’t escape his notice however, that when he returned to clean up the dishes, the rest of the anchovies, and a solid amount of the sauce, was gone.

 

He sat on the stairs again, waiting this time. For RJ, or Theo, or Lily. Someone to come out and say something. Even if it wasn’t an apology, he suspected there was much all of them should get out of the way. In the end, as he should have expected, it was RJ that sat down on the step beside him and handed him a warm mug of spiced cider.

“What was your plan?” he asked lightly, though Casey could see from the corner of his eye that his face was tight, his eyebrows narrowed.

“Plan?” Casey echoed, sipping his cider thoughtfully. “Didn’t really have one. Just knew I couldn’t let them get hit by the blast.”

RJ sighed, his head falling forward. “Casey,” he said as if his name was a source of long and exhausting suffering. “When I said trust your teammates, I didn’t mean take suicidal risks hoping we might pull through.”

Casey laughed lightly, and he could feel RJ tense up. “I wouldn’t have been destroyed,” he said firmly. “Badly hurt, probably, but we’re rangers. We heal quickly.”

“We’re not immortal,” RJ said quietly, staring intently at the floor. “If that blast had hit you, you would have been destroyed.”

“Maybe,” Casey allowed, “I don’t really know what would have happened.” Setting his mug down on the floor beside the step he stood up, turning to face RJ, and lifting his shirt to show his torso. As always, the lack of belly button was disturbing, though familiar.

RJ watched, his face reflecting his questions, but the patience of when he was teaching settling in. Casey smiled crookedly, “See? No belly button. I wasn’t born, RJ. I was created by the demon queen, Bansheera.”

RJ blinked, but to his credit otherwise his face remained impassive, not judging, not frightened, merely curious as to his point. His smile becoming a little more honest, Casey dropped his shirt, and said, “I’m part demon, the rest of my DNA is from two Rangers, Ryan and Carter of the Lightspeed Rescue rangers. They were the strongest enemies she had, so she thought she could make me into a weapon.”

“What kind of weapon?” RJ asked, his face grave. Casey could almost see the wheels turning in his head, coming to the inevitable question of _what if he goes evil?_

Casey sighed, sitting on the floor, facing RJ and grabbing his cider again. “I’m connected to the morphing grid. I can tell who people who will be rangers are when I touch them. I can tell when people are no longer in the grid, and I could potentially sever connections.” He said the last meeting RJ’s eyes evenly. “That’s probably why she created me.”

RJ visibly took a deep breath, his face expressionless save for his eyes. They didn’t know where to look as he processed this information. Casey sipped at his cider, a sick feeling settling in his stomach. As he finished his drink, he stood with a sigh. “You don’t have to trust me, RJ. But I won’t go evil. I was raised by rangers and their allies. I can control it.”

He turned and walked to the kitchen, leaving RJ to think things through. Rather than walking back up the stairs to the loft, he went out the back and let himself drift off on the porch. The night was warm enough, after all.

 

The conversation hovered around for the next few days. Unspoken, as RJ seemed genuinely unsure what to say to him. He didn’t seem frightened, or even phased by what Casey had revealed. More generally troubled by something, though what Casey wasn’t entirely sure. Instead he threw himself into training with Master Finn and his shifts in the restaurant. On the third attack free day, RJ grabbed him before his shift. “Theo will be covering your shift today,” he informed Casey glibly. “We’re going on a trip.”

Wincing, Casey nodded acknowledgement and went up to the loft, grabbing his weapons, and a change of clothes in case things got messy. Then they left together, borrowing Master Swoop’s spirit and heading far off into the hills. As they flew the butterflies in Casey’s stomach multiplied, right up until they landed by a clear lake. It was small, with ceremonial posts standing on the rocky beach. The water was pure, Casey could smell the purifying magic that pervaded the air. No demon could survive in that water, nor could evil magic reach beneath the shores. Looking again at the ceremonial arches, Casey could see the Shiba crest. It was a place sacred to the Samurai Rangers of both Japan, and their distant cousins that ended up in Europe, and eventually America, to defend the wider world from the Gedoushuu from the Sanzu river. How RJ knew of it was another question, as Casey had only heard of it from Adam, a second cousin to the green samurai line. But it was not the most pressing question at that moment.

As the Bat vanished back to Swoop, Casey turned to RJ expectantly. “What are we doing?” he asked, “sparring? Weapon’s training?”

RJ smiled at him, “We’re here to talk.”

“Talk?” Casey asked, somewhat dumbfounded as RJ picked up the basket he had brought, unloading a blanket, some not-pizza food, and some water.

Assuming it was just another strange training session, Casey walked over and helped him with the hummus, pita, bananas, olives, onion slices and diced tomatoes. Sort of pack up, Middle Eastern pizza without cheese, he supposed. Build your own.

They ate in silence, and as time passed Casey felt himself becoming increasingly tense. RJ was meditating when at last he asked, “What, are you going to push me in the water or something?”

RJ looked at him, and the concern where Casey had expected offense drew him back, physically leaning away from his master. “Casey,” RJ said, his voice gentle, soft as if he was dealing with a frightened animal, “I’m not afraid of you.”

Casey breathed in sharply, unsure what to do with such information. Almost as though it hadn’t occurred to him that it was something he was afraid of. Expected, yes, but fear? Being afraid of RJ?

“Then why didn’t you let me help you?” he blurted out without thinking. “Why didn’t you listen to me? I said we could help! Why could Fran help, but I couldn’t?”

Immediately, he looked away, taking a deep breath. “You don’t trust me, RJ. Even when you thought I was human, you didn’t trust me.”

RJ seemed unaffected, to the untrained eye. But when Casey dared a glance at him, he could see a crease between his eyebrows that wasn’t usually there, and that his hands, usually controlled with purpose, were flitting around him, playing with the air, grasping for something to ground them. His eyes looked anywhere but at Casey, while moments before he could feel them boring into his skull with sure purpose. It was, unlike him.

But slowly, he could see RJ gather himself. If nothing else could be said for RJ, Casey thought, it was that he was brave. Not fearless, no, he had been terrified of his father, and for the Rangers on many occasions. But he was brave enough to watch the Rangers fight, despite the probability of having to watch them die. He had saved his father, despite the possibility of abuse. But neither of those things had been as terrifying to RJ as losing control of himself, and watching him gather his thoughts Casey could admit, if only to himself, he understood a little of why his attempts to help had been rebuffed.

Still, RJ maintained his cool, staring over the water, his shoulders only slightly hunched. “You are my students,” he said at last.

“So?” Casey asked, knowing he was pushing his luck but unwilling to leave it there. Too simple an answer to an increasingly complex relationship. “We care about you RJ!”

But this time RJ had no words. He lay a gentle hand on Casey’s shoulder, letting it rest there without pressure. Casey could move aside and it would flop back to the ground, he knew. But the simple weight of it burned through his red sweatshirt, making his skin tingle.

“Just because you’re afraid of yourself, RJ,” Casey said softly, shifting closer rather than farther away, “doesn’t mean we are. Any more than you’re afraid of me.”

The hand tightened slowly as he spoke, bunching in the sweatshirt fabric rather than pulling at skin. Casey covered RJ’s hand with his own. “I’m team leader, RJ,” he said, “I have to take care of the team. You’re a Ranger now.”

“But I’m still your master,” RJ replied quietly, allowing Casey to touch their shoulders, letting his hand fall away. They sat there, enjoying the sunlight through the afternoon having established rules that had been silent before.

They returned to the loft that night, and Casey didn’t wait at the stairs. He slept, dreaming of hell.

 


	13. Chapter 13

13.

It had been an ordinary morning, open shop, make some pizza, run out of the joint to deal with a monster attacking. With RJ borrowing his and Theo’s spirits, it wasn’t much of a challenge.

Until their spirits turned against them. Until _RJ,_ turned against them. It was the first time the words of the fly really reached his ears. _“It looks like the Rangers may have met their match, another Ranger!”_

The statement seemed, obvious. Too obvious. Had their enemy only just realized this? Then, moments later, he was in pain. His spirit being forced to harm him, unwillingly but still there, felt like it was being ripped. It wasn’t something that was ever supposed to happen, and as their power clashed with RJ’s, he blacked out.

When he came to, he found Lily leaning over him and Theo, concern etched into her face. “Casey?” she asked, tentative. “Are you alright?”

He took a moment to catalogue, his head hurt, and his spirit felt a little raw. But otherwise, physically, he couldn’t feel any major injuries. “I’m fine,” he responded, pushing himself up on his elbows. “How’s Theo?”

Lily smiled. “He’ll be fine, just has a little headache.”

“Not so little!” Theo groused from the other side of her, where he, too was lying in the rubble of broken concrete buildings.

“Well, come on,” Lily said, helping them up one at a time, her fingers lingering for a moment over a hole that had been torn in Theo’s coat. “We’d better get back to Fran, she’ll need help with the eleven thirty two rush.”

They missed the eleven thirty two rush by ten minutes, and so helped Fran with finishing up the pizzas and serving them before heading up to the loft and flipping through the channels to find out where RJ had gotten to. Finding he was on his way, they waited.

Casey breathed deeply, trying to calm his mind. RJ was on his way, holding his shoulder gingerly, but looked more cross than anything. Clearly things were under control, at least for the moment. No doubt RJ would swan in, act like there was nothing anyone else could do, and life would continue as usual with their master getting hurt, and them going out and focusing on monsters. Assuming it wasn’t even more dire this time.

 

Casey had never given much thought to the strangely hyper fly that Camille ate and spat out at will. It buzzed around yelling during their zord battles, and tended to be cheering for anyone who wasn’t Camille (hardly surprising given her treatment of the fellow,) but he hadn’t really thought about who, or what, the fly was. Or why it was so very fond of their megazord fights, for that matter. So when it was buzzing around in the corner of the room, grabbing it seemed only the natural thing to do. It had shown no particular inclination to leave team Dai Shi, after all.

But it did provide useful information, and seemed to have imprinted on RJ a bit. There was no denying that Flit was obsessed with friendship. Though it was indicative of an honor code, Casey supposed. RJ had saved the fly’s life, so the fly was helping them save RJ. It was almost, as Lily said, sweet of the little guy.

Besides, he was quite sure that no one would make up a story about being captive in someone’s stomach. It was just, too weird to not be true.

Casey had not been expecting the relieved fury he felt when Flit explained the cause of the transformation. At once glad that RJ’s wound wasn’t acting up, and furious that after so much pain and trial to get it under control in the first place, RJ was back to fighting himself.

As were they, it seemed mere moments later.

All of them tried to contain, not attack, holding to hold RJ still until he could reassert control. They were thrown to the ground for their troubles, as always. As they fought it didn’t escape Casey’s attention how vicious the blows aimed toward him were, as RJ, no, the wolf twisted his arm behind his back, claws caressing his shoulder for a brief moment before the wolf jumped over, and was gone.

 

He followed RJ. Lily and Theo engaged the fish and Casey continued to chase the wolf, the fly following closely, and even managing to slow RJ down long enough that Casey could hold him, grabbing his arms from behind.

The fly’s power was something else though. It resonated through his skull giving him a splitting headache, feeling as if his skull was being removed to leave only exposed brain tissue for the world to peer into. He got a sense from RJ’s mind that the man was fighting, fighting with himself, or the spirit, or some other force. Just fighting.

The wolf broke free, and the fly changed tactics, causing Casey to fly to the side, lying on the concrete and trying to get air back in his lungs, and shields back over his mind before the wolf decided to attack again.

Fortunately, whatever it was Flit did, worked. The shining golden spirit flew out of RJ, and it was over. They were tired, the fly seemed particularly exhausted, and Casey could feel some of his ribs had been cracked and his side was bruised from being thrown around so harshly. So he got out his crutch, the cruiserider, and let RJ take the brunt of the battle.

The fly certainly seemed to enjoy it, and the sorrow on RJ’s face as Flit returned to Camille was touching.

Casey felt quite justified in his raging hunt for the fly that landed on his nose as they made pizza. It was something physical he could squash, at least. And even then, RJ saved the little pest.

Some days, he just couldn’t win.

 

That night he sat on the back porch instead. The trash bins had been cleaned recently enough it wasn’t too smelly despite the humid night. Above, the moon was full and bright, the white-blue light making the dark alley shimmer. Despite his change of pondering space, RJ managed to find him within half an hour. He handed Casey a mug of tea, mint with honey.

“Thanks for today,” RJ said lightly. Though his tone was flippant, Casey could feel him testing the waters. Neither was quite sure how to act around the other after their day trip. Casey had been training with Master Finn for the past several weeks. It was getting old, he missed the simpler lessons. Basic sparring, or mediation. But then, everything had changed since RJ was captured. Casey was at once more of a leader than he ever had been, and far less in charge. Half the time fights seemed to have little to no need for his presence. Even the fly had better luck fighting RJ than Casey ever had. Even the fly had more luck befriending RJ than he had.

“You okay?” RJ prodded as Casey’s silence continued.

Casey shrugged, wincing as it pulled at the shoulder RJ, the wolf, had damaged. “We’ve been through worse.”

“I’m sorry I went off again,” RJ said carefully, laying a hand on Casey’s good shoulder. “I didn’t expect Grisaka to have control over evil spirits.”

“Do you think he’ll try again?” Casey asked, turning to glance at RJ.

“No,” RJ replied, a small grin on his face. “Flit helped me stabilize my spirit. He can’t do it again unless he can get close enough to destabilize one of us.”

Casey nodded and went back to staring at the alley. “Good.”

They sat in silence for a while, staring at the moonlight as clouds danced over it, throwing shadows on the trash bins and the bikes parked in the alley. “Are you afraid of me, Casey?” RJ asked as easily as if he were discussing the lack of rain.

Casey twisted around to look at him again, considering him for a moment. Fear was one word for it. At once he felt like RJ was pulling him closer, and also pushing him away. He was utterly confused, hurt, angry, and so very relieved that RJ was okay. He was definitely afraid of those emotions, he was very afraid of what they meant. But that wasn’t RJ’s fault. “No,” he replied wearily, running a hand through his hair, his shoulders slumping. “Not really.”

RJ breathed in sharply at his words, shifting away from him incrementally. Casey frowned and said quietly, “Let’s go running tomorrow. I don’t feel like training with your dad. Teach me something new?”

He could hear the smile in RJ’s voice as he replied. “Be up at six then, after all, the early worms escape the birds.”

Casey huffed a laugh to himself as RJ left, and despite himself felt lighter. He wasn’t sure what had changed, but apparently his question was the correct one.


	14. Chapter 14

14.

Casey didn’t like Dominic.

It wasn’t necessarily personal. More just, the guy went out of his way to make trouble. Pretending to be a health inspector, playing pranks, hugging RJ freely and interacting with him as an equal… No, not necessarily personal. He just happened to be both an offense to Casey’s sense of honorable conduct, and a source of great jealousy. It was a toxic mix, he knew it, it was also impossible to turn off.

So immediately putting Dominic on the most unpleasant of jobs, pointless and useless wasn’t the most, _adult_ thing he could have done. But he felt more than justified when he found his morpher in the trash, squealing for him to go help the others. Just about everything Dominic did made things worse, and already under pressure Casey knew he wasn’t exactly in control of his emotions or actions.

It was a bad fight. As lovely as it was that all four of them had their act balanced well, it was quickly clear their usual fight patterns wouldn’t suffice. So when Dominic interfered on their behalf, and nearly got an extremely foolish civilian crushed, well, it wasn’t exactly the best introduction to a person overall.

So perhaps, just perhaps, he was unfair to Dominic when he asked to join them. True, Lily and Theo were entirely on his side. But, he should have known to listen to RJ and Fran by then. Or at least, calmed his mind before making decisions.

But hindsight was always, well, clearer, he supposed.

Dominic’s words had been sincere, so heartfelt, and it wasn’t like anyone trained him for work in the pizza parlor. But all Casey could see, even now, behind his eyes, was the smirking grin, RJ grabbing him for an enthusiastic hug, and the man’s incomprehension of why everyone was so angry with him. Carelessness, a trait Casey had never been afforded in his life, a trait that could get everyone you know killed, was one of the few things Casey could never forgive. Especially when it came to respecting training gear, training, and basic safety.

And yet, somehow, after seeing him save Fran by instinctive movement, above thinking things through, it recolored all those memories. Instead of a careless guy who was goofing off, Casey could see a mildly incompetent person, socially a bit awkward, just better at covering it. A little like RJ. Anyone like RJ couldn’t be too terrible, so in an instant, Casey found his mind changed.

It was kind of fun, sitting on the sidelines and watching lazily as Dominic walked through the Rinshi. They probably should have been attacking Crocovile, but none of the others seemed to care much either. And once they’d accepted him, Casey found himself relaxing more than he had in ages, having fun, laughing a bit. Even when the jerk actually gave him the gum stuck under all the tables.

As Casey sat on the roof, his latest pondering place since RJ and Dominic had been talking in the common area for the past three nights till the early hours, he felt oddly light.

“You made the right call, you know,” Lily’s soft voice came from below him as she hoisted herself onto the roof next to him, her yellow pajamas becoming dusted with black speckles from the shingles as she joined him.

“Do you guys take turns trying to figure out where I am?” Casey asked, exasperation slipping into each word. But he scooted to the side so she could join him at a safe junction.

Lily smiled crookedly, brushing curls behind her ear. “RJ was looking worried. I think he’s been waiting for you to join him and doesn’t realize Dominic is stopping you.”

Casey snorted, “He didn’t do anything.” He lay back against the roof, stretching his arms behind his head.

“You made the right call,” Lily reiterated, patting his right elbow, which just happened to be closer. She took a deep breath, staring up at the stars with him. “He’s a handful,” she mused quietly, “But we really did need him.”

“Which one?” Casey replied lightly, “Dominic or RJ?”

Lily giggled, “Both,” she said warmly, “though I wouldn’t call RJ a choice.”

“Hm,” Casey replied, noncommittal agreement seeming safest. He took a deep breath, the still warm roof smelling of tar and the warmth of the day. It wasn’t exactly soothing, but it did remind him of the parking lot of Uncle Bulk’s café, and the familiarity was warming.

“You like RJ, don’t you?” Lily asked gently, poking him in the side.

Casey shrugged, not bothering to deny it. “You like Theo, don’t you?” he replied glibly.

“You know I do,” Lily replied calmly, lying down properly next to him. “We’ve been dancing around each other for years now, just waiting for the fighting to be done. Training didn’t leave much time for relationships, even friendship,” she admitted, face turning wistful with memories. “At the academy we trained all the time, and crammed in what schooling we could around it. That we were even friends, instead of just part of the larger group, was unusual. Master Mao allowed us to train together more than with others, but it was a considered allowance.” She let out a huffed laugh. “I’d been there for seven years when we were chosen. Theo had been there on and off since he was eight.”

“What about your families?” Casey asked curiously. “They were okay with that?”

Lily smiled, turning her head to face him, “They knew it was a specialized school. My family is poor, for me to receive a quality education was a small miracle. We were allowed to leave whenever our families wished it, for sibling birthdays, or holidays. We didn’t lose all ties to home, so it was okay.”

“What about Theo?” Casey asked, “Does he have a family?”

Lily went very quiet for a moment, then sighed. “He has a twin brother, and parents. They immigrated just before he was born. He doesn’t like to talk about them too much, but he received lots of cards at the academy, so I think he’s loved.”

Casey smiled crookedly. “I’m glad. Will you go see them when the fighting is over?” he asked.

Lily grinned blindingly. “Of course I will. What about you?”

Casey’s smile faded, “There’s no one left for me. Just the team.”

Gently, Lily took one of his hands, lacing their fingers together. “Then it’s a good thing Dominic joined us, now you have more family.”

Casey looked at their hands for a moment, before tightening his grip. “Yeah,” he agreed, “I guess I do.” A ghost of his smile worked its way back onto his face, and they turned their eyes back to the stars above them.

Casey tightened his grip on her hand again, then let it go. “I think you’re right about Dominic though,” he said, “We took a while, but it feels like the right thing for everyone.”

 

And so it proved. With Dominic around the workload in the pizzeria was lighter, as was the mood as they all began to dance through the daily routine. RJ was visibly happier, having an equal around to interact with. A part of Casey missed having time with RJ, but everyone was laughing as they had been back when they were first learning the ropes. The battle exhaustion that had gotten to all of them was alleviated by the light attitude Dominic had toward everything around him. Not that there was anything wrong with taking things seriously, but by treating each day as something fun instead of just another battle, just another mark in the endless drudgery of waiting for Dai Shi to send out another creature to collect fear. Or, Grisaka, as the case might be. Or whoever was in charge at any given moment, they had no real way of knowing.

At Lily’s prompting, Casey suspected, she and Theo had rallied around Casey. Training sessions hadn’t increased, but among the three of them they had gone back to being more intimate. Dominic and RJ commented on their forms, suggested improvements (though no one let Dominic anywhere near their weapons), but otherwise let them be. RJ’s absence from their practice was felt, but Casey had to admit, they’d improved enough they could give each other a challenge without RJ there to spur them on.

With the atmosphere lifted it was easier for Casey to let his jealousy go than he thought it would be. A large part of him was just glad that everyone was alive, well, and now RJ had a confidant. Someone he could turn to and talk with that would be neutral. Someone he didn’t have to train, or watch out for. A friend he could relax around.

Casey had to stop the train of thought, a pit of helpless feelings growing in his stomach. It wasn’t fair to Dominic that he wish that he hadn’t come. It wasn’t fair to RJ either, or Lily and Theo who may have been destroyed by Crocovile. But, somehow, fairness couldn’t stop him from wishing that RJ would let Casey help him carry the burden of the world. In a way, being leader, he automatically did. But ever since they went to the spirit world, RJ had been bearing more and more of the world alone. It was comforting to think Dominic could carry some of it with him. It would have been more comforting if Casey didn’t miss the easy trust so much.

“Selfish,” he berated himself quietly as he fixed one of the televisions. A cord had wriggled free and been broken by Theo, leading to a rather large hole in their ability to see the western end of the city. So he had tossed his shift off on Theo in retaliation, and set about putting it all to rights.

Hearing footsteps up the stairs, he tensed slightly, trying to focus in on his task to avoid having to talk with RJ or Dominic, the only two currently free to go up to the loft barring emergency. But his internal wishes to be invisible were in vain, as a round, freckled face popped through the mess of screens. “Casey! Theo said I might find you here.”

“Hi Dominic,” he said, pasting a smile on his face that quickly returned to a frown of concentration as he slipped the last of the replacement wires into place, and secured it. Standing and brushing off his hands, he turned to the man in white. “What’s going on?”

Dominic shook his head, “It’s not an emergency, just, could we talk?”

Casey shrugged easily, “I don’t see why not.”

To his surprise Dominic walked over to the window, and leaned out, rather than sitting on the stairs or heading toward the upstairs couches. “What happened to RJ?” Dominic asked quietly, once Casey got close enough to hear him over the noise from outside. “He’s not, himself.”

Casey sighed, “We’ve been fighting for half a year now, it’s only been getting harder. He’s taking the brunt of it.”

Dominic ran his hands through his hair, ruffling it in frustration. “That’s the thing I don’t understand, he’s always been a lone wolf but he knows when to ask for help!”

Casey grimaced, “We’re his students.”

Dominic stared at him for a long moment, and realizing that his face was telling, Casey looked away, staring down at the customers going in and out of the pizzeria. But Dominic kept staring, the thoughts in his head nearly audibly whirring with gears clicking conclusions into place. “What is RJ to you, anyway?” He asked at last, his voice neutral.

Casey chuckled, “You know, I’m still not sure. Every time I think I know where a line is drawn RJ erases the line and redraws it somewhere else.”

“But why pay attention to the lines at all?” Dominic asked, leaning out his window to look Casey in the eye.

Casey shook his head, might as well get it over with. “I came here with seven days of Academy training under my belt, no family, an out of control spirit and no understanding of what I was getting into. I got here and he handed me a morpher, and told me to go save everyone.” Saying this aloud, it sounded a lot worse than he’d ever considered it to be, but from Dominic’s lack of reaction he already knew that much at least. “He’s my master. Master Finn is helpful, but,” he broke off as Dominic’s eyes grew wide and he choked on air.

“You know Master Finn?” he asked in a choked coughing laugh. “How is RJ still teaching you?”

Casey grinned and shrugged, “He didn’t tell you? They’re getting along now. They argue a lot, but, I think they’re really trying to understand each other.”

Dominic shook his head slowly, leaning more heavily on his elbows. “Wow,” he said quietly. “You guys have really improved his life, you know that?”

Casey snorted, “We brought danger to his doorstep and he’s been keeping us alive since. He’s exhausted, and its been getting harder for him to hide it. I’ve tried to help him out but,” he shook his head, “he doesn’t want it. So, I’m glad you’re here. Maybe you can do what I can’t.”

The lines between Dominic’s eyebrows creased deeply as he studied Casey again, taking in details he probably hadn’t thought to look for before. The fact that his muscle structure still wasn’t quite up to martial artist par, his hands were still too soft to have the calluses that should have been there, and the weary set to his shoulders as he moved. “Casey,” Dominic asked quietly, “Who has been taking care of you?”

Casey tilted his head. Dominic’s tone wasn’t judgmental, but worried. “What do you mean?”

Dominic gestured them back inside, and he dragged Casey over to the Chair and sat him down, shushing his protests. Gently, he began to massage Casey’s shoulders, a painful process despite all the stretching he did each morning. “Nobody can take care of themselves forever, and while I know Lily and Theo are close enough to make sure they both are taken care of. RJ is a master, and stubborn, but would speak up if he needed help. I hope,” he added as an afterthought. “But, nobody taught you this, did they?” he asked, working at the muscles that had been forced to heal by the morphing power more often than Casey liked to think about.

“I’m fine,” he replied quietly, stifling a groan as Dominic’s fingers dug in too hard.

“Casey,” Dominic said with his usual light tone, “Any idiot can see you’re not. I can’t fix your heart, but I can teach you how best to keep your muscles healthy.”

Casey was too absorbed in his muscles being relaxed to question what Dominic meant by his heart, but if he had been able to pay attention he would have felt RJ’s presence from the corner, watching them with a small smile on his face.

 

It was that night that Casey found himself hiding in the shadows of the couches as it was raining outside. But below him, Dominic and RJ were arguing in hushed, yet raised, voices.

“What were you _thinking?”_ Dominic hissed at RJ over a chessboard. From what Casey could see they were pretty much ignoring all the rules of chess and playing more of a free for all with various spirits attributed to pieces, but he couldn’t entirely tell. “He’s about to crack from the strain of training, being leader and having to put up with your constantly mixed signals!”

“A matter of perspective,” RJ countered, taking one of Dominic’s pieces and placing it on a random square of his choosing. “What you see as breaking may in fact be part of the learning process.”

“You’re an ass,” Dominic replied, moving the piece RJ had moved three squares forward. “Just tell the guy you like him.”

RJ went very quiet, and Casey concentrated very hard on the ceiling so as to avoid attracting their attention by staring too long. “I’m his master,” was what RJ said, very quietly, but firmly. “He’s an amazing person, Dom, and I have every faith in him and his ability as a ranger, but-”

“You’re halfway in love with him,” Dominic replied irritably, “Since I’ve gotten here you’ve talked about him at least seventy five percent of our conversations. Only other time I’ve heard you talk about someone that much it was when your dad was in the process of disowning you.”

Casey winced, and suspected that RJ would have as well. Sure enough, his master’s voice was quite tight as he replied, “Casey managed to fix that too, so,”

“I know RJ,” Dominic cut in, voice conciliatory. “You know I don’t mean it that way. I just think you’d both have an easier time of it if you’d let yourselves lean on each other a bit.”

“He has enough on his plate,” RJ replied, his voice smooth and steady once more, the click of pieces on a board beginning again. “Dom, I’m not going to take advantage of him, he’s my student and when we’re not fighting monsters it’s my job to protect him.”

“He didn’t know how to take care of his muscles,” Dominic replied sharply. “Or if he did, he hasn’t been doing so. You’ve been so worried about being appropriate that his body is being damaged. RJ, keep it platonic, keep it professional, I don’t care. But do _something._ ”

The couch was soft, Casey realized, as he drifted off to the feeling of the wolf spirit checking in on him as the game continued quietly below. He wasn’t sure if it was exhaustion, or the comfort of the familiar presence, but he fell asleep faster than he had for over a month.

He woke up in a bed, and found RJ in his hammock the next morning. It was, something.

 

Unfortunately the calm couldn’t last.

The following days were a blur of action, frustration and confusion in turn. Dominic’s dream of Master Mao and RJ’s revelation that Dominic, apparently, had the key to amazing power handed to him years ago. Part of Casey was relieved at the thought of a greater arsenal, anything to make the battles less difficult. But he was also somewhat torn, RJ’s tone was flippant, the façade he put on when he wasn’t sure of what he was saying. Legends were, after all, rather hit and miss in any tradition. Pai Zhua legends were as steeped in tiny cores of reality as any martial arts tradition. That RJ couldn’t say one way or another was, concerning.

On the flip side, a solid control dagger that had been given to Dominic by Master Mao gave it all quite a bit more credence, and Dominic seemed quite abruptly certain that his destiny was set forth from whenever that day was. So Casey watched Dominic and Theo go to retrieve the dagger with a mix of amusement, and foreboding.

Foreboding that proved all too called for. The day ended up being a mess of fighting and waiting for the others to arrive with backup. Being tossed to the ground again, and again. Winning only to be unable to fight without Theo, watching as RJ fought the giant monster alone.

It was a long, tiring day.

Then to get back to base only to have to turn right back around, rescuing Dominic from Camille of all monsters. Casey had thought Dominic was stronger than that, given how he took out the crocodile spirit that first day. But, he supposed, as he watched RJ launch a particularly vicious attack at the chameleon spirit, that could’ve been a mix of first day enthusiasm and first morph high.

And perhaps, he admitted to himself as she stole the dagger from Dominic’s hand, it wasn’t for nothing that Camille was Dai Shi’s second in command. Even so, he was tired, sore, and the bird monster had spawned itself again. They fought it again. It was easier with Dom there, to be sure. But once they had to form the megazord, he couldn’t help but slightly wish that Dominic could help with that, too. Theo saved them by grabbing the bird’s foot.

Casey still really wanted a shower.

But instead he apologized to Dominic for biting his head off, and packed to head off to the Nexus. As he packed he paused, running a hand over the backpack. It was a new one, but the same style as the bag he’d had when he’d all but run away from the orphanage. Red, of course, instead of the dull and generic blue-grey his old bag had been. How far away that all seemed now. Somewhere in the fighting, he had lost the sense of being lost, alone, empty.

Glancing up into a mirror on the wall, Casey realized it had been three days since he’d last thought about Angel Grove. It wasn’t the first time, by any means. But for the first time, it didn’t feel like a betrayal, or a weight for him to pick up again.

With half a smile, he ran his fingers over the zipper again before turning back to task, grabbing food, a change of clothes, medical supplies, and a blanket just in case they had time to rest. He wasn’t counting on it though.

Rejoining the others by the chair, he found everyone else ready. Lily and Theo seemed uncertain, Dominic set and determined. But RJ, he was all but glowing with excitement, as though he knew something they did not. But he didn’t ask, they didn’t have time. And they headed out in the megazord, flying at top speed.

Even going as quickly as they could, Dai Shi, Camille, and all the Overlords managed to get there first, Grisaka taking the high road and growing so he could squash Dai Shi instead of fighting impractically. It was, Casey had to admit as they barreled into him with fists flailing, a logical maneuver that he was glad that villains didn’t think to do too often. Grisaka was stronger than anyone they had fought before. Had he chosen to join the front line immediately, Ocean Bluff would have been a ruinous memory long before Dominic had joined them. As it was, their spirits were easily blown away, demorphing them and throwing them onto hard grass.

They would have died if not for the sand snakes. As the Overlords stood above them, Casey stole a glance at RJ, and wasn’t surprised to see he looked as unsure of what to do as the rest of them. They were outmatched, plain and simple. There was no way to fight them and win.

But the snakes could hold them for a moment, giving them time to run. Carnasaur still managed to stop them before they could get far, but as RJ gave Dominic the signal to run, Casey steeled himself for a battle that was at least, technically possible to fight. Putting on his best fighting bravado, he led the morph, and the fight continued.

Punch, kick, get knocked down. Stand up, do it again. They tried the cannons, and it utterly failed. They tried master mode, and while it helped, all it meant was they had marginally more time to stand each time they were knocked down. Casey’s right elbow had been twisted near the beginning of their fight, and it was throbbing slightly even with the morph. RJ tried his wolf beam again, and Casey had a flashback to their training session right after RJ joined them, when Casey’s will had been insufficient, and they had been blown away.

Sure enough, RJ was thrown to the ground for what had to be the tenth time. So Casey stood again, and once again was thrown by his injured elbow. Carnasaur was playing, he realized. Fending off their attacks where he could be utterly destroying them.

A theory immediately confirmed as he threw them into illusions, and made them hurt each other.

It was like being blind, the mist deadening his sense of the others’ spirits, and presences. A Carnasaur appeared and it was Theo, another, and it was RJ. Then Lily. Then they were all injured. Carnasaur was there, and everything was pain.

Then, when they were completely exhausted, worn down by constant blows from a foe they could barely see, Carnasaur stopped, and offered him a choice.

“You will have to choose, Red Ranger, which of me is real, and which is illusion.”

He took a deep breath, emptying his mind as his mother had taught him long ago. Instinct, she had taught him, isn’t so different from magic. Both stem from something inside you, and if you don’t know how to control them will drive you insane. Instincts can turn to paranoia, magic to chaos. But by letting the icy magic that most often lay dormant enhance his senses, Casey could see the illusions melt away.

And he struck.

 

As they fought Carnasaur, back in the megazord once more, Casey felt as a rusty yet powerful morphing force was reactivated on the grid. As they were forced from megazord mode, and demorphed on the ground once more, it gave him the tiniest sense of comfort that at least Dominic had succeeded in their quest. Whatever that power was, it was at least as powerful as all of them combined. Maybe more powerful.

Then Dom saved them, and Carnasaur was destroyed. New megazord, new powers.

Casey was just glad he’d thought to put medical supplies in his backpack.

 

They took a moment, once the Overlords and Dai Shi had fled, to collapse. Theo was in better shape than Casey, Lily and RJ, them having fought around six battles in quick succession without rest. But even Dominic, who had taken the least of the brunt, seemed wiped.

He’d hopped down from his new zord, demorphing with a grin on his face that looked like it would split his face. The residual glow of gaining new powers hadn’t faded, and so he was bursting with energy.

As such, it took him a moment to see how battered the team was. Grin fading, he met Casey’s eyes, and while Casey managed an exhausted grin back, he also fell back against the ground, holding his elbow gently, too tired to check if he’d brought braces, or just ace wraps.

As he lay there, Dominic checking over the others, Theo doing his best to help, even if it was just physically keeping RJ from hopping up to help when he had some rather impressive burns from his attempt with the wolf beam, Casey felt a familiar chill seeping through his veins. It was comforting, soothing, and caressed his elbow till it stopped throbbing. As if it were wiping the bruises, fractures and bleeding from existence.

The weariness, however, only increased, and against his will the world faded from his eyes as he passed out.

 

 


	15. Chapter 15

15.

Waking up and not knowing where you are was never a pleasant prospect. But waking and finding himself surrounded by purple, Casey found himself relaxing backwards, knowing that they must have made it back safely if RJ had found it relevant to deposit Casey in his bed. Had he himself been badly hurt, he would have been in the chair, and if everyone was damaged, they had cots stowed away in case one person needed to monitor all of them at once.

No, if he was in RJ’s bed it meant he was worried, and wanted to be sure Casey would sleep well.

Memory, however, was slow to return of the previous day and a half or so. He tried to sit up, but his body felt heavy, as if covered in cement. “Wha’-“ he tried, but broke off coughing.

For a moment he heard a scuffle in the bathroom, the sounds of a quick handwash then Theo ran in, took a glance at him then ran to the stairs and yelled down, “He’s awake!”

Blinking, Casey turned his head curiously to look over at Theo. Surely it wasn’t that dire? He’d only been out for, well, he couldn’t remember so maybe it _was_ that dire. “What, happened?” he rasped out as RJ, Lily and Dominic charged in, presumably ignoring one of the various rushes that Casey could hear going on downstairs. Eleven thirty five, if he read the sunlight in the room correctly.

“Casey,” RJ said, sitting on the bed and running a hand over his forehead, pulse points, and seeming to be almost scanning him as he did so. “Do you know what day it is?”

Casey shook his head the tiniest amount. “Fight?” he croaked out, glancing around the room in confusion. “Zord?” he asked, looking at Dominic, a niggling memory at the back of his head.

“Correctomundo,” RJ said, his grin strained. “Do you remember anything else?” He gently ruffled dirty hair away from Casey’s eyes. It occurred to Casey that they’d probably given him a sponge bath, as he wasn’t in his uniform, but in clean and warm pyjamas.

Casey half shrugged, eyes closing again of their own accord. “Cold,” he whispered, as he began to lose consciousness again. Warmth surrounded him as he slept, and so he slept without dreams.

 

When he woke a second time, RJ was in the corner meditating. Alarms were going off, but apparently the team could handle whatever it was because RJ stayed as he was, quietly protecting the room.

“Hey,” Casey said, his throat dry. RJ slowly looked up, smiling as he took in the sight of Casey sitting up on his own. “Shouldn’t you go help them?”

“It’s just Rinshi,” RJ assured him, hopping to his feet and bringing over a glass of water. “They have it well in hand.”

Casey drank a sip of the water, taking the glass, though RJ’s hands hovered next to his for a moment, ensuring he could handle taking a drink on his own.

“How do you know that?” Casey asked, handing back the glass.

RJ shrugged, putting the drink on the floor. “It’s been the same thing for the past five days. My guess is the Overlords and Dai Shi have their own wounds to lick, and can’t spare the resources to send out proper monsters.”

“Wounds?” Casey asked, before RJ’s full sentence filled in. “Five days?”

RJ sat next to him and firmly pushed him back into the purple pillows. “You’ve been more or less in a magically induced stasis for days. We thought you might be dead, for a moment there.”

“Why?” Casey demanded, batting away RJ’s hand. “Was I hit? I don’t remember being injured-“

“You healed us,” RJ interjected smoothly, dodging Casey’s hands and poking him back down. “Dominic was trying to help Theo enough that we could get home, powerful though the rhino zord is, it isn’t exactly practical for fast travel across country.” RJ’s flippant mask slipped, and he met Casey’s eyes gravely. “You started glowing, same as when you healed me after Dai Shi had me captive. We found ourselves lying on the grass, free of bumps, bruises, breakage, burns or bleeding. You, however, wouldn’t wake up.”

Casey thought back on what he could remember, the control dagger, and then just a blur of fighting. He shook his head. “I don’t remember much after seeing the new zord.”

RJ smiled crookedly, and brushed a hand over Casey’s head. “It’s okay Casey, just, take it easy for a few days.”

Against his better judgment, Casey grabbed RJ’s hand and held it, meeting RJ’s awkward affection with a fond smile. “Can I have a shower?” he asked after a moment had passed, morphing RJ’s uncertain expression into fond exasperation. “’Cause I’m pretty sure I wanted one five days ago, and I’m also pretty sure it never happened.”

RJ helped him up, and even knowing how marginally useless he was at the moment, Casey felt strong enough to take on the world. His friends were about as safe as any ranger could be, and he would get to shower. And eat.

Food sounded good too.

 

Recovery was slow all around. As he began to reintegrate into life, Casey noticed everyone was a little shaken. Dominic had lost some of his cocky edge. Where usually he had been wisecracking, being in all the wrong places at the exact right time to exasperate everyone, and kicking back when there was work to be done, it seemed the trip to the Rhino Nexus had given him a sense of purpose he had lacked. Either that, or finding all his friends half dead in the name of getting new power had convinced him of the seriousness of their situation.

Lily and Theo were drawn, treating Casey as if he were made of glass, or possibly a highly combustible material. They didn’t object to him making pizza, but they kept him in the kitchen as surreptitiously as they could. His training and practice was relegated to RJ, who was having them focus on meditation for the time being.

Casey was bored, frustrated, and tired of being left out of the Rinshi fights. They were skirmishes, nothing that any one of them couldn’t handle alone. It seemed their enemies were taking far longer to recover than they had. A fact that was, as RJ pointed out whenever he commented on the oddness of it, down to Casey’s peculiar heritage and powers. It was improbable, for all their power, that healing was among the skills of evil spirits.

And so a couple weeks went by. After the first week, Casey had taken to practicing on his own, analyzing where his body was strong, and where it was weak. But as time went on he became increasingly sure it was just the last of the damage healing. His elbow, which should have slowed him up for at least a month even with the morphing grid fueling his recovery, was fixed with nary a twinge. It was enough to make him wonder just how badly hurt the others had been.

He should have expected it, really, but his answer came through eavesdropping. He had left his hammock for a glass of water, and found the other four sitting by the chair, faces grim as they spoke in low tones.

“What _is_ he RJ?” Theo hissed, and it was clear from RJ’s closed off expression that it wasn’t the first time that question had been thrown around. “Animal Spirits I can deal with, even the Overlords, but magic?”

“It’s not like you hadn’t seen it before,” RJ dodged neatly. “He told me you went to the Spirit World and came back thanks to his, unpredictability.”

“Yeah, but that’s just the Spirit World,” Theo said, “It’s not-“

“I don’t think you understand how impossible that was, Theo,” RJ reproved, standing up from his chair and pacing. “The rules around going to the Spirit World in physical form have only been broken once in collective Pai Zhua memory, and last time didn’t end well.”

“But we’re the good guys,” Lily protested, staying where she was seated on one of the training blocks, but her feet moving as if to brace to stand. “RJ-“

“Guys,” Dominic interjected, causing everyone to focus in on him. “The rules were implemented after Dai Shi tried to take over the first time. Its been sealed since. Masters go there through meditation, and we all go there when we die. But what you did was, unprecedented.” He turned his frown toward RJ. “That was a while ago though, I’m more worried about him healing six broken bones, a concussion, dozens of bruises and possibly internal bleeding without meaning to or even touching Theo.”

“Not to mention whatever damage the rest of us had accrued by that time,” RJ agreed. He paused in his pacing, eyes lingering for a moment where Casey was. His face softened, but he said nothing of his presence. “Honestly, I can’t see that there’s much we can do about it. In the end, his actions have always turned out in our favor.”

“But why can he do that?” Theo snapped, and Casey’s heart broke just a little, seeing the warring fear, anger at being kept in the dark about something, and sadness in Theo’s face. “Why didn’t he tell us he’s, whatever he is?”

“Maybe, he just, didn’t want us to be afraid of him.” RJ suggested gently, laying a hand on Theo’s shoulder. “Guys, I called this meeting because that was a bad battle, and we were lucky to survive it. But it happened, and we need to pull together. We’ve had a break, but Dai Shi won’t take much longer to recover.” RJ turned to Dominic and Lily, and though all Casey could see was his back he was sure his face was on the resigned side. “Casey’s strong enough to fight.”

The immediate protests from everyone warmed Casey’s heart, and also made him want to strangle them ever so slightly. But RJ held up a hand, and spoke firmly. “He’s the leader of our team, we need his strategy, and while Dom’s new megazord is impressive, sooner or later we’ll have a situation where it just won’t suffice. Training tomorrow, all of us. I’ll let Casey know.” He turned and strode away, carefully avoiding the shadow Casey was lurking in.

Shaking his head, Casey walked away from the fallout. It was one thing to eavesdrop on a meeting he really should have been invited to. Another still to poke his nose into the others’ fears and insecurities.

When he got back to his hammock, he found RJ lying in it, apparently meditating. He chuckled to himself, and considered for a moment the pros and cons of pouring the remainder of his water over the errant Wolf Master. Instead, however, he plopped down on the floor next to him. “Can I have my bed back? Or am I excluded from sleeping now, too?”

RJ’s eyes opened, and he rolled gracefully out of the hammock to sit next to him. For once he seemed quite lost for words. Casey grinned crookedly at him. “Was it really that bad?” he asked, rather than address the elephant in the room.

RJ simply nodded, his face open as it had been when they had discussed his father. “I can’t speak for the others,” he said calmly, “but I was in bad shape. Using the wolf beam was a mistake.” He grimaced, hand going to his ribs. “None of us were dying, but I’m not going to lie to you Casey, I was sure I had fractured most of my ribs. When you started glowing, I thought you must have taken a blow none of us saw, somehow been hurt in one of the fights so it would slowly destroy you.” He shook his head. “You wouldn’t wake up, Case.”

Casey grabbed his hands, and just held on for a moment. “I’m here now.” He assured him. “And I’m not going anywhere.”

To his surprise, RJ, dragged him closer, and pulled him into a rough hug. He didn’t say anything, but neither did they move for a long while.

 

Training was awkward at first. Casey and RJ did some light sparring while Dominic put Theo and Lily through their paces. Then they swapped out, RJ and Dominic playfully bantering as they pretended very hard that Dominic could take RJ down, for while significantly more powerful, they had trained together for years and Dominic’s tells were still clear as day to the wolf master. Dominic, meanwhile, had yet to grow accustomed to RJ’s new fighting forms, and so ended up on his butt as often as he managed to get a hit in.

When they were done, laughing and walking over to the sidelines, Casey tossed Lily and Theo their weapons, and took out his sabers. Without a word to either, he attacked, causing Theo to rocket up toward the ceiling, and Lily to lash out in return with her mace. Rather than worry about blocking it, Casey fell back with the blow, slipping below to slash at Lily’s legs.

It quickly devolved from there, Casey’s frustrations with their inability to talk with him translating to him drawing on old forms, a version of himself he had thought he had left behind. Training sessions with Jason flashed into his mind as he slipped his blades around Theo’s fans, taking the glancing blow that Theo pulled back as quickly as he could. Morphed though they were, it was rare that they went in for kill shots, and ideally Theo could have sliced his neck.

But Casey didn’t particularly care. He knew they wouldn’t hurt him, just as he wouldn’t hurt them. And indeed, when they finally stopped, Casey batting aside Lily’s mace as it flew to the left of his face, he found they were all laughing at the absurdity of it all. Dropping morph, Casey grabbed his water bottle, and taking a deep swig grinned at everyone. “Good work today,” he said, turning to RJ and Dominic. “Assessment?”

Dominic raised a eyebrow. “Honestly? Sloppy all around.”

Casey laughed, squirting some water at him lazily. “You’re one to talk.”

“Casey!” Lily called laughingly. “Don’t start that again!”

“Agreed!” RJ chimed in, looking quietly satisfied. “Let’s clean up, get some food, and help Fran with the three twenty six rush.”

As they cleared the dojo area, Casey found himself suddenly enveloped in a hug, Lily squeezing him until his ribs slightly ached. “Don’t do that again,” she scolded. “You scared us.”

“Yeah, well, just tell me that next time, okay?” Casey replied, squeezing back. “I know what I can do is weird, but-“

“It wasn’t that!” Theo cut in, prompting Lily to let Casey go. “We’re just,” he hesitated, looking at Lily, who nodded and took one of his hands in hers, and one of Casey’s with her other hand.

“We were afraid, Casey,” she said, her compassionate eyes clouded with memory. “None of us has ever been hurt that badly before. We thought you were going to die.”

“Yeah,” Theo agreed, his voice hoarse. “How would you feel?”

Casey closed his eyes and thought about it, how it would be to find Lily or Theo unconscious, comatose after a battle that had raged for more than a day. “Yeah,” he said after a moment. “I guess. But guys,” he grabbed Theo’s other hand, pulling both of them close and pressing their hands over his chest. “I’m alive. Just, close your eyes and listen. We’re all alive.”

They did, the jaguar and cheetah slipping unnoticed by their originators to prowl around them. They sniffed at Casey fondly, then after brushing up against him, returned into Lily and Theo as they opened their eyes.

“Better?” Casey asked, smiling hesitantly.

Lily pulled them in for another hug.

 

That night, Casey hit the streets. He felt restless, something in the air had changed. It wasn’t malicious, just different. Almost familiar, dredging up an old memory of one time Jason had turned his lessons over to Adam.

_“I have to go greet the new Ranger team,”_ he’d said. _“We like to check in now and again, just to see if things are going well.”_

_“Will you talk with them?”_ Casey had asked, looking up at his mentor. _“Will you say hi to the Red Ranger?”_

Jason had laughed and ruffled his hair. _“Sometimes,”_ he said warmly, _“Sometimes they don’t need it. We just want to be sure nobody is stuck mentorless.”_

Casey had a feeling that was going on. The morphing energy wasn’t of their group, anyway. Who it would be he wasn’t sure, probably no one he knew. But he wanted to be sure they left his team alone. They had enough issues without adding in even more of a mess.

Turning down a street that led to a small park, a green area with a pond, a bike path and some swings, he stopped dead in his tracks. A falcon was flying around the area, examining its surroundings. A white falcon, one he knew well as a child. Tommy hadn’t been his primary mentor, but as Jason’s partner he had given Casey plenty of lessons.

Taking a deep breath, Casey walked out from behind the trees along the bike path. To look at, Tommy hadn’t changed a whole lot. He was a little older, but just as muscled as ever. He was meditating on the grass, explaining the falcon’s erratic flight. It was enjoying the peace and quiet.

Rather than disturbing him, Casey sat down on the grass next to him, joining the meditation. Tommy didn’t so much as flinch, welcoming his presence without a word. They stayed there for over an hour, breathing together, Casey watching their spirits play.

“Do I know you?” Tommy asked at last, relaxing his posture. “You seem familiar, somehow.”

Casey chuckled, “You’re supposed to be dead,” he replied. “Last time I saw you, I was twelve. You taught me how to hold a bo.” He let out a silent huff of laughter that felt almost like a suppressed sob. “Jason was crushed.”

Tommy flinched, “Casey?” he asked, eyes straining through the darkness to see Casey better. “But you died in a monster attack?”

“Is that what they thought?” Casey asked, feeling both as though someone punched him in the stomach, and as though a heavy weight had lifted. “I wondered why they never came for me.”

Tommy shook his head. “Bulk was sure you’d been crushed. He’d left you asleep in your bed before heading to the restaurant. Everything was totaled.”

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t there,” Casey replied, “it’s complicated. Who survived? I thought everyone else was dead.”

Tommy shrugged, putting a gentle hand on Casey’s knee as if to stabilize him. “Jason was visiting me when it happened, wasn’t too pleased with me either. Bulk and Skull got to the reinforced tunnels, they were safe. Rocky and Adam were caught in a traffic jam, didn’t make it to work that day. Really the only person we lost was Trini, and that was unrelated.” He sighed, “God, Casey, if we’d known-”

“Well you didn’t know,” Casey cut in, not wanting sympathy. He could feel it burning him from Tommy’s eyes, but after so much time believing everyone dead couldn’t bear it. “And I’m fine. If you see Jason, tell him that will you? That he was right about Rangers. We’re fine.”

If anything the sorrow in Tommy’s eyes became more pronounced. “I’ll tell him,” Tommy agreed quietly. “Is there anything you need?”

Casey shook his head. “No. We don’t need you guys interfering. We’re fine on our own.” He wasn’t proud of how he nearly spat the last word, but Tommy seemed to understand his turmoil. He had seen it before, after all. The betrayal of all you know. The pain of what-if.

As Tommy stood to leave, Casey asked, “Why did you do it?”

“Let people think I was dead?” Tommy asked, turning back.

“Yeah.”

Tommy frowned thoughtfully. “I suppose the same reason you’re going to now. There was work to do, and it hurt more for people to know I was alive than to be a ghost.”

Casey couldn’t refute it. “Will you tell them?”

Tommy smiled crookedly. “Not my secret to tell,” he replied. “Might have to tell Jason though, if you really want your message passed on.”

Casey smiled back, equally sideways. “Yeah. I’ll see you, Tommy. Thanks for checking on us.”

With a nod, Tommy turned and walked away, vanishing into the evening fog.

As Casey turned to return to the loft, he found RJ’s wolf, nudging at his leg. “What are you doing here?” he muttered under his breath. In the trees along the path, he found RJ, waiting for him, hands behind his back unassumingly.

“You’ve completed your business?” he asked, as if Casey hadn’t just discovered his life was mostly a lie.

“Yeah,” Casey replied, forcing a smile onto his face. He walked over and embraced RJ, much to his master’s surprise. Grinning into his mentor’s stiff shoulder, Casey said, “Let’s go home.”

 

Jason came by three days later. Lion spirit that he was he set everyone on edge. He barged into the restaurant while Theo was opening and, utterly ignoring all the “staff only” signs, Theo’s protests, and buzzing wards RJ had set up in the case of enemy incursion, he charged straight up into the loft.

Hearing the scuffle as Theo tried, and failed utterly, to use martial arts to stop Jason, Casey wondered if he should have warned the others that a determined master martial artist (whom he had thought dead) would probably be visiting. It had sounded like work, but given the consequences he had to ask himself if the mess was really worth it.

Rolling out of the hammock, he half-grumble-yelled for Theo to stop. He didn’t, but Casey was quite sure Jason wouldn’t actually hurt Theo. He knew enough Aikido to divert just about anyone to the ground with minimal injury. So Casey took his time getting dressed, brushing his teeth and poking his hair into a semblance of order. As he left the bathroom he said, “You could’ve waited an hour, or knocked.”

“Where’s the fun in that, kid?” Jason asked, sitting in his hammock as though it was the most natural thing in the world. “You pretend to be dead for four years, I really have to go for a dramatic entrance.”

“Pretend, right,” Casey grumbled, running a hand over his face. “I assume Tommy gave you my message.”

“He did,” Jason’s face showed nothing at Tommy’s name. “What the hell kind of message was that, kid? Rangers are always fine?”

“You said it first,” Casey replied, wandering closer and sitting cross legged on the floor beside a potted plant. “What was I supposed to say? I’m glad you’re not dead, and hey, neither am I? Where the hell were you all when I was in child services? None of it matters-“ Casey cut himself off, shaking his head. “I’m a Ranger now. I’m fine.”

Jason slipped off the hammock, joining Casey on the floor. “We grieved for you, Casey. We, weren’t fine. Even finding out you were right, that Tommy was alive didn’t make up for the fact that our carelessness, not watching you better, ended with you dead.”

“I’m not dead-“

“We didn’t know that!” Jason burst out, grabbing Casey’s shoulders and pulling him awkwardly into a hug. “We failed you.”

“I’m okay,” Casey assured him, hoarse but more honest. “Really Jason, I have a home here. I have friends, a team. I’m not alone anymore.”

“You never should have had to be,” Jason said firmly.

Casey shifted his position for better comfort, and let himself lean into Jason’s embrace, smiling slightly. “I’m just glad you guys are alive,” he admitted. “It’s strange, after believing I was supposed to die with you for so long, being told I could have lived with my family longer, if only I’d known to tell them about Uncle Bulk instead of Carter and Ryan.”

“They didn’t take you to them?” Jason asked, “They didn’t turn you away?”

Casey pulled back to see his face and had to laugh at the relief there. “No.” He assured him, “I’m quite sure Child Services found out they were gay and Power Rangers and deemed them unsuitable.”

“I shouldn’t be relieved,” Jason said after a moment, “But I am. They had no right to keep you from them, but when I found out,”

“I know.” Casey said, turning his body so he could lean against Jason, soaking in the comforting presence of his old mentor. “It’s turned out for the best though. I learned a lot.” Sighing, he asked, “You ever get back together with Tommy?”

Jason huffed a laugh, shoving at Casey’s shoulder gently. “No. I didn’t forgive him for pretending to be dead until three days ago.”

“Huh,” Casey said, noncommittal. “Should work on that. What about Adam? He and Rocky still running a dojo?”

“Yeah, yeah they are,” Jason said, hugging Casey’s shoulders, and slowly filling him in on the comings and goings of the Rangers. The kids people had and adopted, relationships started and broken. Four years of news. Four years of life Casey didn’t get to see. He even got to hear about Spike, Uncle Skullovitch’s son. It was good to hear. Soothing.

Rosie had moved on from Rangering, it sounded like. She was teaching at a college, just as she had before. Billy and Trini had married, but Trini died in an accident not long ago. Billy was healing, Jason told him. It would be alright, someday. Tommy was still in Reefside, apparently he hadn’t known what else to do once his Rangering was over. Apparently Rocky was their main connection to the Ocean Bluff Rangers, through some connection Jason didn’t know. He’d gotten shingles a few weeks before, and given the explosive nature of Dominic’s arrival, they saw fit to send Tommy to double check that all was well.

Casey, in turn, filled Jason in on his team. He told him about Lily, her determination and knack for holding everything together, even when there was no hope. Theo, rash and proud but with earned pride in his skills. He told him about Fran, and her patience with their carelessness, and Dominic, the jokester that was considerate of everyone regardless.

He told him of RJ, his strange training and fun loving spirit. Of his terrible clothing choices, and worse dance moves. His inability to stay away from the fighting, despite being their mentor, and even then his determination to ensure that they didn’t get hurt. His knowledge of when to step in, and when to stay back. The color of his eyes. His foolish rules about his chair and the fact that he could wear purple every day, and it only made the color more wonderful.

He could feel Jason laughing silently as he spoke about RJ. He didn’t care, any more than he cared about the five pairs of eyes that were watching them on and off. He just relaxed, and let himself babble about his life. For the first time in a long time, he felt safe. For the first time since he stood on the broken streets of Angel Grove and stared at the ruins of his home, he felt like he could heal.

 

Jason stayed all day. It wasn’t until evening that he was willing to let Casey from his sight, a fact that Casey could sense was gradually irritating RJ. Not an easy feat, but he suspected RJ wanted to, in his own way, interrogate Casey about his relation to Jason, and why he had charged into the loft at such an early hour.

But as the sun went down, Casey followed Jason out and walked with him downtown to get away from prying eyes. They got ice cream cones at a local parlor, and sat outside, eating their cones and watching as the sky was painted with vibrant reds, oranges and purples.

“So,” Jason said, out of the blue. “RJ.”

Casey shifted in his seat, suddenly terribly afraid of where this was going. “Yeah?”

“You love him?” Jason asked mildly.

Casey hesitated, “Yeah?” he said, unsure as to what a right answer would be.

Jason laughed, taking a bite out of his cone. “I’m not going to judge you, Casey. Bear in mind I’m still considering trying to date Tommy again, even after everything.”

“He’s, RJ,” Casey said, struggling to find any way to explain his feelings. It really did just boil down to RJ being himself, patient, kind, eccentric, and oh so broken at times. Self sacrificing, and so _foolish_ at times.

The goofy grin that painted his face as he thought about it was enough for Jason, he realized, as Jason grinned. “You’ve got it bad, kid.”

“I know,” Casey groaned, ducking his head to the table, holding his ice cream steady with effort. “How did you know with Tommy?”

Jason frowned at the table, thinking hard. “I guess it was when he shared his powers with me,” he said at last. “He had some extra armor built into his first set of powers, he could share it if he wanted. One day, we came up against one of our zords, Titanus, he gave the protection to me. I gave him my sword. Sharing power with the set of powers we had, it was intense. I ended up holding onto those powers for him for a while, it was complicated. Messy,” Jason sighed, glaring at his melting ice cream. “Everything was.”

Casey’s eyebrows crept up his forehead. “You always made it sound like everything was great, dream team, perfect to fight with.”

Jason laughed, “Case, you were a child! I couldn’t tell you about the pain involved. That would’ve given you nightmares, and Bulk, while not a skilled martial artist, is quite the cook. He’d poison me for sure.” Both were laughing, ice cream dripping over their hands. “Besides,” Jason said, calming down, “by that point it didn’t matter. We’d both tried to kill each other so many times that we stopped counting what we owed each other.”

“Kill each other?” Casey asked, “You and Tommy?”

“Let’s just say mind control was hugely popular among the supervillains back then,” Jason said, rubbing the back of his neck with his ice cream free hand. “It was touch and go at times. In the end we worked things out for the most part. If he hadn’t pretended to be dead, we’d probably be married by now, or something.”

Casey sobered, remembering the funeral. “How did he react, when he found out you knew?”

Jason laughed bitterly. “He let me hit him.”

“Well, that’s something,” Casey said, not quite sure how to respond to that.

Jason nodded, sighing and wiping his fingers with a napkin. “He’s a Ranger,” he said, “he always will be.”

Casey shook his head slightly. “He’s held all the power sets he had potential for.”

“Doesn’t mean the powers can’t revive,” Jason pointed out. “It doesn’t matter. It’s part of who he is. I accepted that a long time ago.”

“Is that what you meant back then? When you said you have to let go?” Casey asked, remembering the last time he’d seen Jason.

Jason shrugged. “It’s a good rule in general.”

“Yeah,” Casey said, thinking on RJ’s constant balancing of protection and freedom. “I guess it is.”

They finished their ice cream, and said their farewells. Before he left, his motorcycle obnoxiously red even in the darkness of the evening, Jason hugged Casey close. “Stay safe kid,” he said, “I’d hate to have to explain to the others that you died again.”

Casey grinned into his shoulder. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

 

RJ was waiting for him when he returned home.

“Everything okay?” he asked suspiciously, looking wound tight, ready for battle, even against a man who had proven himself more than equal to Theo just that morning. Someone able to hold Theo back without effort was probably capable of defeating RJ, not that Casey had any desire to test that theory.

“Everything’s fine,” Casey assured him, taking one of his hands in both of his. “That was Jason, he was my mentor till I was fourteen. I thought he was dead. Well, surprise! He’s fine, they’re all alive, and now I _really_ need some sleep.”

RJ, being RJ, accepted that at face value. Without another word he took Casey’s hands with his remaining one, and led him up into the loft. With a look he cleared out Lily and Theo, both of whom had clearly been waiting with questions. To Casey’s surprise, however, RJ fetched pillows from his bed and Casey’s hammock, lay out yoga mats and set up an area on the floor where they could sleep.

“Never hurts to be ready for nightmares,” was all he’d say about it.

But with the wolf spirit watching over him, the nightmares never came.


	16. Chapter 16

16.

In the days following Jason’s visit, Casey found himself falling back into the routine of rangering. He had made a few phone calls, Jason knowing he was alive and an active ranger meant the rest of the rangers would know in short order. But one person remained that Casey knew he should let know personally. He couldn’t go to him, but he could call.

He found himself frozen, holding the phone to his ear, ready to dial the number Jason had scrounged up for him, but unable to move. It was silly, perhaps, that he would rather be fighting a giant monster than making a single phone call. But this would recontextualize everything in his life. More than Tommy or Jason, even more than if Uncle Andros had shown up out of the blue, Uncle Bulk knowing he was alive felt like the final nail in a coffin of nonsensical pain.

He was so frozen that he didn’t notice as RJ sidled up behind him, and gently took the phone from his hand. “It won’t dial itself, amigo.” He said warmly, squeezing Casey’s shoulder with his free hand.

“I don’t know what to say to him,” Casey admitted, leaning back against the wall. “It’s been so long.”

RJ glanced at the paper Casey held in his hand. “Panorama city, huh?” Hanging up the phone he led Casey gently by his shoulder into the kitchen and sat him down on the stool there, pulling out some dough that was proofing and starting to roll it out into a crust. “You could always take a day,” he suggested glibly, as if he hadn’t given it much thought. But looking at his face, Casey could tell he had thought long and hard on the pros and cons of Casey being so distracted. “You could borrow the bat spirit, I’m sure the rest of us could manage.”

“I know.” Casey said, shoulders slumping. “Its just, I don’t think I can face him alone.”

“Then RJ can go with you,” Dominic hopped in, wandering into the kitchen as if he hadn’t just been eavesdropping. “If there’s a monster we’ll call you back, Panorama city’s only two hours drive away, flying it won’t even take half an hour. Fran can manage the restaurant.” He grinned at then both, looking between their equally cross faces with a familiar, though recently rare, glint of mischief. “If you could go have a picnic by some samurai pond, you can deal with family business.” He circled around RJ, grabbing half a pineapple, clapping him on the shoulder and dancing away from RJ’s irritated swat. “Besides, you owe him that much for putting up with you and your dad!” he called, winking at Casey as he all but danced out of the kitchen.

The silence in his absence was deafening, but after a moment Casey looked up, almost hopefully. “Would you?”

For a brief moment, RJ froze, then looked up from the dough and smiled. “Of course.”

 

It was a much shorter trip than Casey had expected, and the town aesthetic was much nicer than he’d anticipated given that the city was essentially on top of an underworld. Here and there he could see the signal charms hidden around the city, set to warn if monsters ever came through a breach. From the looks of some areas of the city, that had already happened more than once, young Jayden presumably taking care of it.

But they didn’t have time to linger, and so made their way through the city to a rather sketchy address, that Casey had no doubt at all was accurate.

“Do you want me to?” RJ asked, his words trailing off as he lifted his hand, offering to knock.

Casey nodded, his throat thick. He felt almost detached as the door cracked open, Bulk’s familiar face peering out through the crack in the door. “Hello?” he asked, his jolly voice a touch uncertain. He looked and sounded older than Casey remembered, sadder. The panda, that was rarely still within the man was nowhere to be seen, as if it had been buried in Bulk’s sorrow.

“Farkas Bulkmier?” RJ asked, formally. At Bulk’s nod, he held his morpher in front of himself, and inclined his head. “My name is Robert James, my friend and I were wondering if you’d be willing to talk? Some news has come to light that we thought you might wish to know.”

Casey frowned at the formality, RJ had never struck him as one to stand on ceremony. But to his surprise, Bulk closed the door, taking off the door chain and ushered them in to the predictably small, and incredibly untidy studio apartment. If it could even be called such. The entire place was worn, water stains on the ceiling and walls, and the floor scratched badly. It was, however, mostly clean and serviceable.

Bulk walked over to the stove, and almost as if by force of habit stuck a kettle on the stove. “Would you like anything to drink, Mr. James?” Bulk asked, waving them over to a makeshift, falling apart futon couch.

Shaking his head, Casey set about finding a screwdriver, or any other tools to tighten the screws. RJ laughed silently as he managed with a pair of scissors. “Just water, if you could?” RJ said to Bulk, accepting the drink from him a moment later.

“What is it you need?” Bulk prompted, once he was settled on the futon, shooting Casey curious looks as he puttered around the place, adjusting furniture and dusting off the odd cobweb here and there. “I assume you’re power rangers.”

RJ tapped Bulk’s hand, returning his attention to him. “We have information about a child that went missing years ago. Or, rather, it only now came to our attention that you lost a child in a monster attack four years ago.”

“Casey?” Bulk asked, looking agitated. “What-?”

“He’s a ranger,” RJ interrupted smoothly, holding Bulk’s gaze to keep him calm. “He was found by a member of our order a little over half a year ago, and chose to join the fighting.” Casey snorted, and gave RJ all the credit for ignoring him completely. “He believed his friends and family to be dead.”

Bulk, slow though he could be, zeroed in on Casey who was tightening the handle on the door with the scissors. “Casey?” he gasped out, jumping up off the couch.

Casey turned around, feeling far younger than he had any reason to as Bulk approached him cautiously. “Casey?” he asked again. “You’re, alive?”

“Uncle Bulk,” Casey choked out, as he was enveloped in a hug, a rush behind him as Bulk’s animal spirit embraced him from behind as well. Sobs wracked his large frame, and Casey found himself tearing up as well. “I’m okay. I’m okay.”

He had forgotten how warm and comforting it was to be around Bulk. He was honest, and as such his grief was open and encompassing. His hold was crushing, desperate, as if Casey was a lifeline unlooked for in a world of misery.

“Do you still make hamburgers for lost kids in the desert?” Casey asked as his stomach rumbled.

Bulk laughed, choking on emotion as he finally released Casey. “I’ll see what I can do,” he choked out. “I don’t have a restaurant anymore. It was destroyed by the monster.”

Casey frowned, seeing RJ was already remedying the food situation, having taken stock of the kitchen he was slipping out the door with a bag over his shoulder. He led Bulk over to the couch again, sitting opposite him, keeping a hand on his arm to ground them both. “Didn’t the insurance pay out after the attack?”

“It did,” Bulk admitted, more tears slipping from his eyes. “But I couldn’t do it.”

Casey sucked in a breath, understanding the depth of pain in that statement. “I’m sorry.” He said gently. “I went back and everything was leveled. I was sure you were dead.”

Bulk nodded, wiping his nose on a handkerchief he pulled from his pocket. “It was close,” he admitted. “The tunnel I ended up in had some damage, it took days for us to get dug out. Then you were gone, and I just-” he broke off, frustrated, unable to say the words. He looked almost ashamed of himself.

Casey pulled him into another hug. “I get it,” he said hoarsely. “I wasn’t functional either.” He pulled back and kissed the top of Bulk’s head. “I missed you guys, all of you. I was so surprised when Tommy checked in on us.” Casey shook his head, his breath a laugh and a sob. “I didn’t know what to do when he said you were all alive.”

Bulk smiled through his tears, and tightened his grip on Casey’s arm. “Tell me what you’ve been doing.” He said, looking excited to hear. “Tell me everything.”

Telling Bulk the story was different from telling Jason. Where Jason was roughly emotional, but overall kept it together, all of the horror, and sorrow Bulk felt at what Casey had gone through showed clearly on his face. The loneliness clearly resonated with him, the fact that no one had cared to find Carter and Ryan infuriated him, and Casey’s tales of his friends were received with a gentle joy for him that was strangely validating.

By the time he finished, hours had passed, RJ had returned, baked a quick rise pizza, and left them to it. Casey could sense him meditating outside the door, protecting their conversation from evil ears and interruption.

Like Jason, Bulk clearly picked up on Casey’s crush. Unlike Jason, he just looked at him with the proudest smile Casey had ever seen on his face. It was enough to make him want to stay there, basking in his adoptive father’s presence for far longer than he had the luxury to.

And indeed, before Bulk could tell his side, RJ strode in, tossing Casey his sunglasses, he had taken them to ensure they wouldn’t break into their conversation if a minor incident happened. “There are monsters out there. They came out of the cracks in the ground with a red glow.”

“Moogers,” Casey breathed, a sigh and a fear. “The Samurai Rangers have been fighting them for a while now.”

“Up to giving them a day off?” RJ asked, already striding back out.

Casey huffed a laugh, clapping Bulk on the shoulder. “I’ll be right back.”

He was a little surprised when Bulk followed them out, and watched as they morphed. Knowing the strengths of the Moogers, Casey summoned his sabers and sliced at them, rather than attempting to take them down with martial arts. They were more difficult to dispatch than Rinshi, but he knew that was because as powerful as spirit energy was, these creatures were running on the tears of humanity, grief rather than fear. A different hell, a different power, it needed a different counter. It was similar enough that he and RJ managed to dispatch them without too much effort, but had a proper monster from the Sanzu river come out, he doubted they would have had a very good time. They would still have won, of that he was sure. But the injuries accrued would have been far more than if they were dealing with one of Dai Shi’s minions.

As it was, as they demorphed, grinning from the adrenaline high, a young voice called out, “Who are you? And why are you here?”

Casey turned to find a young man dressed in red glaring suspiciously at them both. “Hey, Jayden,” he replied warmly. “Long time no see.”

“Who are you?” Jayden replied, raising his morpher suspiciously. “Why were you fighting the Moogers?”

“Friendly fellow,” RJ muttered to Casey, who smothered a laugh. It did, indeed, seem that Jayden had grown perhaps a little too entrenched in his isolated life, if he’d not heard of the Ocean Bluff Rangers.

“Jay, I know it’s been a while, but it’s me.” He put out his hand, concentrating on creating an illusion he had shown to Jayden when he was just a child. A butterfly, like the ones his mother had once had dance around his room as nightlights. He made it a glowing red, and it perched on Jayden’s hand, still steady and poised to draw their death into the air.

Jayden’s breath caught. “Casey?”

“Hi,” Casey said, letting the illusion fall. “As I said, it’s been a while.”

Jayden looked ready to protest, say he was dead, or something else. Fortunately Bulk came up behind them, waving hello to the kid. It seemed enough to convince him, as he stood down, letting his hand drop to his side. “I see. Well, it was nice to see you alive, but I have to get back to Shiba House. There have been an increasing number of breaches.”

Casey smiled and waved as Jayden awkwardly left. Even as a very small child, Jayden had been socially awkward. Isolated and trained with obsessive urgency by Jii, the poor kid hadn’t known much besides training. Much though Casey wished it could be otherwise, he wasn’t surprised he would turn out a bit repressed.

“You’re here to watch them, aren’t you?” he asked Bulk, turning around with a sigh. “I wondered, but the Rangers always have someone on hand. Having this much warning is practically gift wrapped, and if you couldn’t stand owning a restaurant, it would make sense for you to keep an eye out.”

Bulk flushed, looking sheepish and proud at the same time. “Tommy asked for my help two years ago, Jii stopped telling them anything around when you, vanished.” He visibly winced, picking the word carefully. “I was too depressed to hold a normal job, so they suggested I keep an eye out for them.”

Casey grinned, “You’re a lot braver than you’re given credit for.” He said, causing Bulk to flush again.

As the moment grew awkward, RJ sidled in with his usual flair. “Hate though I do to break up the moment, the pizza is in dire need of being eaten.”

Casey’s grin grew, though he hadn’t thought it possible. It was a moment he wished he could stay in forever, Bulk’s Panda patting RJ on the head, as if unsure what to do with this strange man that had brought Casey back, but clearly already adopting him as a fact of life.

Almost without thinking, he grabbed their hands, both looking at him in surprise. “RJ,” he said, “this is Uncle Bulk. He raised me.” He grinned at each of them, then turned to Bulk. “Uncle Bulk, this is RJ. He’s my mentor, and friend.”

At a glance between the two of them, some of the formality of their original meeting was back. Changed however, into a silent sizing up of another person important to Casey. RJ, never one to question his students’ choices too much, was the first to offer his hand, which Bulk shook enthusiastically, laughter returning to his eyes as quickly as it had fled.

All things said, it was a good day.

 

Leaving had been hard. Bulk held Casey tightly, and even though he thoroughly understood the need for him to return to Ocean Bluff, still the deep fear in his eyes, as if it were all a dream, was something Casey understood all too well. All that gave him peace of mind was that they had each others’ phone numbers, and promised to call whenever anything relevant happened, and every Wednesday at eight forty six, barring monsters.

RJ handled most of flying back, Casey lost in thought. Rather than heading straight back, however, they detoured to the park to meditate for a little while. Centering himself had rarely felt as necessary, but with the wolf spirit pacing languidly around them both, Casey found his mind more easily eased than he would have expected. His grief remained, from the past four years. But there was a lightening to it, and an anger at it, that had not been there before. Breathing in and out, he allowed himself to understand that it would take time, that he could afford to wait until the battles were done to come to terms with it. That someday, with the luck of a Ranger, he would have a quiet life where he wouldn’t have to worry about it constantly anymore.

Once he was sufficiently calm, they walked back to Jungle Karma Pizza. As they walked, a thought occurred to Casey. “Who is watching our team?” he asked.

RJ hesitated. “Well, I suppose I am,” he said, avoiding Casey’s gaze. “I told you I have a cousin, well, second cousin, in Angel Grove who was a Ranger?”

Casey nodded, “Yeah, you mentioned that.”

“Well, he calls every week and I fill him in on what’s been going down. He didn’t tell me he was reporting to other people but, I imagine that’s the case.” RJ admitted, looking more troubled than Casey liked.

Casey ran through the Angel Grove Rangers in his head, and could have slapped himself. “It’s Rocky, isn’t it?” he asked, groaning aloud. “I should have known! He’s the only one who could have told you where the samurai lake is, Adam wouldn’t have told all the others.”

RJ smiled at him, “Exactamundo,” he said quietly. “I’m surprised you know him.”

Casey laughed, and broke into an animated explanation of his family, and how it came to be. RJ was silent through most of it, eyes dancing with amusement at the various Ranger connections Casey was listing, each more incredibly improbable than the last. But it scarcely mattered, because Casey realized the names no longer hurt to say. They were all _alive_.

As they approached the back entrance to the pizza parlor, Casey pressed a kiss to RJ’s cheek. “Thank you,” he said simply, then walked ahead and vanished back into their regular life, grabbing a mop and helping Theo with closing up shop.


	17. Chapter 17

17.

The Crystal Eyes signaled that the monsters were on the move again. Casey wasn’t sure why he had been selected to talk with the archaeologist, one Dr. Sylvia Jennings. Probably because he’s team leader, possibly because he said they had to make sure the eyes were safe. Even more probably because RJ didn’t want to, Theo and Lily were training, and Dominic inevitably would have pulled another health inspection debacle. As it was, for all that Casey did his best to be helpful and radiate sincerity, Dr. Jennings wasn’t willing to trust him. He classified the encounter as, though perhaps not disastrous, definitely not a win.

Not that he had expected her to hand over the eyes. While her dolphin spirit had been warm, friendly, and clearly unintimidated by just about anything, it also had a stubborn set to it that was all too familiar. So instead of pressing the point he retreated, letting RJ know the results.

He took it well enough, equally unsurprised by the outcome. But as he cautioned Casey over the eyes, Casey was sure he could see fear in RJ’s eyes. Whether it was that he would make the wrong choice, and let Dai Shi get his hands on the eyes, or something else he couldn’t say. RJ seemed unusually tense for going off to face Rinshi, and as Casey sat down to wait for the inevitable fallout of Dr. Jennings’s refusal to hand them over, he wondered why RJ didn’t stay and send _him_ to help Theo and Lily if he was that concerned about him messing up. The way he said _“no matter what happens,”_ stuck in his mind.

Fortunately, it wasn’t half an hour before Camille tried to steal the eyes. As he went to engage, RJ’s hesitant insistence that he prioritize the eyes over Dr. Jennings’s life rang in his mind, repeating as he engaged the Rinshi.

He really should have expected Camille to use Dr. Jennings as a hostage. But part of him wanted to believe it would be easier than that. Unable to morph without giving away his identity, he fought the Rinshi without his powers. He fought with bare fists, and was struck by how easy it had become. _“If Dai Shi gets those eyes, everyone’s going to get hurt.”_ RJ had spelled it out for him, but somehow saving the person right in front of him felt like the better thing to do. What use was a blank slate future of potential pain, if he watched Dr. Jennings die?

Still it weighed on him, a potential vision of cataclysm hovering at the edge of his awareness. Fail to get the eyes back, and everyone would die. They could barely manage the Overlords, much less more powerful beings. Or perhaps equally powerful, but more of them. He couldn’t say without the Phantom Beasts reviving. He didn’t want to. But as he chased Camille, morphing as he ran, he thought about the basketball, the hoop, and the job of a leader.

Another small corner of his brain noted that morphing was much easier as well, as if some fear in his mind was lifted. A pain he associated with morphing that simply didn’t apply any more. With the knowledge that his family was alive, and ready to back him up at the slightest call, he felt like he could fly, even as dread pooled in his stomach. Technically he had failed at his task, Camille had the eyes. Dai Shi had them.

Then he was fighting Dai Shi. Alone. Without any backup whatsoever. As he was blown back by a blast of zokado from Dai Shi he considered calling for help. RJ had said they were fighting Rinshi. Any of them could handle a few of those. But his faith that they could come if he called wasn’t as sure as it might have been. He could sense a powerful force in the city, whatever they were fighting was big. He was further shaken by Dai Shi, or perhaps Jarrod’s, assertion that they were fighting Grisaka. Not a normal monster. Not something they knew how to defeat. If Carnasaur had nearly killed them all, Grisaka would make paste even Casey couldn’t heal out of them. He was simply too powerful, all the overlords were. The only effective counter was…

It was at that point that Casey’s veins began to flood with cold energy. Impossible feats, it whispered, are easy with me. For once he didn’t fight it. He had seen the ruins of Angel Grove and the family he had there fall before his eyes. He had found them all alive and well, and in the name of the Grid itself he was not going to lose another family so soon after recovering his old one.

His rockets forced him to a superhuman speed, allowing him to grab the eyes away from Jarrod, and Jelica, and fly away. Back to the city, back to his friends who needed him.

He took one minute to stash the eyes before he joined the battle. A moment he found, as he arrived just in time to see Grisaka aiming a ball of zokado energy that would destroy all of them, was nearly too long. But with the help of magic and the furious determination that was burning in his mind, he deflected the energy. It was nothing compared to the lives of his friends. It was _nothing._

He felt, cold. Calculated, seeing the world properly through the morphing grid for the first time in years. He could see the connections, see the way the power flowed through him, and the others. Through Dominic. Through their morphers.

He punched Grisaka away with a burst of magic and jet power. It would buy him the time he needed to get the last basketball in the last hoop.

“Dom!” he called, “give me your morpher!”

“Really?” Dominic asked, sounding bewildered, probably not entirely from the request. But he handed it over, and Casey let the power boost jolt into his veins. Precision he hadn’t known crept into his movements, and by combining all the power he possessed in his being, it wasn’t hard. The fear he had felt of Grisaka melted away, leaving a vague amusement that Jelica and Dai Shi’s infighting had allowed him to get the eyes, hide them, get to the fight and weaken Grisaka. Without her, he probably would still have been fighting Jarrod, and his friends would have been destroyed or dead. He couldn’t even tell.

But he chose not to dwell on it, even managing to banter with everyone before they threw their finisher at Grisaka. For once, Casey cut off the self-congratulation. They all knew what would happen next. They knew Grisaka would grow, and the part of Casey that had the energy to acknowledge how quickly he was draining himself knew it was not going to be fun.

They won of course, but a _lot_ of skyscrapers got knocked away by it. He couldn’t feel too bad about stampeding through the city, especially as Grisaka would easily have leveled far more of it in his giant form. That didn’t make it any less wince worthy, and made him cringe internally at his choice to save Dr. Jennings. Not that saving a single person would ever be wrong, but hundreds of people, thousands, could potentially be in every building that was crushed by monsters, or hit by their megazords. Saving a single life, in the face of that, was oddly self-serving.

And yet, when he brought the eyes back to her, and she handed them straight back to him, he couldn’t find it in his heart to truly regret his choice. When RJ confronted him at the base of the stairs again, he found himself free of doubt. And if he didn’t know better, he’d have said there was a hint of approval for his choices in RJ’s teasing him about being lucky.

 

That night they took turns watching the eyes. Camille knew where they lived, after all, and so did Flit. If they wished it would be a simple matter for them to break down the door and destroy the place. So Dominic took first watch, being the least battered of them after the day. Lily and Theo took second watch, later in the night when the stars were out being more probable as a time for attack. RJ and Casey took the shift from one in the morning till five, when the stars would have faded to the point where they were no longer of use.

Rolling out of his hammock at Theo’s urging, Casey joined RJ by his chair. RJ’s eyes were closed, using his other senses to check for spirit energy. But there was none, as Casey could have told him easily. “You fought Dai Shi alone today,” RJ said abruptly.

“Yeah, I suppose I did. Well, yesterday,” Casey said, looking at the time. “Why?”

“Why?” RJ asked incredulously, sitting forward in his chair and opening his eyes. “Casey, when did taking on _Dai Shi_ alone become a no brainer for you? The last time you tried that,” RJ trailed off, had going to his shoulder reflexively, phantom pain from the wounds he had obtained in captivity.

Casey thought about it. Even a week before, he certainly wouldn’t have considered it a good idea, much less something he could survive. Jarrod had clearly powered up as well, zokado power wasn’t something he’d used even when Grisaka showed up. Finally he shook his head. “I didn’t have a choice. As you said, if they’d gotten the eyes, everyone would have gotten hurt.” He met RJ’s gaze and asked a question that had been bothering him since they had destroyed Grisaka. “Did you know you’d be fighting Grisaka when you left?”

“Know is a strong word, amigo,” RJ said, his flippant tone raising the hairs on the back of Casey’s neck. “I had a suspicion that they would send more than Rinshi to keep us out of the way.”

Casey looked at his hands as he said, “Jelica and Dai Shi were fighting over the eyes. I don’t think Jelica knew where our five were. If she didn’t, Grisaka probably didn’t know either.” He dared a glance up, his fearful anger having cooled.

RJ’s eyebrows went up. “Then we all got lucky,” he concluded. “Today should have ended very differently.” The expression passed, and a grin replaced it. “Ah well, all’s well that ends well and all that.” He settled back in his chair, looking entirely too pleased with the situation.

Casey lay his head back against the arm of the chair, closing his eyes. The day before had taken more out of him than he thought. “Morphing is easier when I’m not afraid,” he said out of the blue.

He wasn’t looking at him, but could feel a tiny jolt in the chair as RJ tensed with surprise. “Have you been afraid?” he asked.

“I didn’t think I was,” Casey admitted, “but part of me really believed it was because they were rangers that they were all dead. That it was the retribution of the darkness. That destruction might be the fate of all Rangers.”

“We all die in the end,” RJ cautioned.

“Yeah,” Casey agreed, stretching his arms above his head. “But Rangers often lose everything. Everyone. You know Jayden? That kid we met in Panorama city?”

“Yeah?” RJ asked.

“His entire family is dead, except for one, and he can’t see her, ever, in case the enemy is watching.” Casey yawned, opening his eyes to stare up at the rafters. “Everyone else that will be on his team has lost someone to Rangering too. Or Wes and Eric, the Time Force Rangers out in Silver Hills. No one knows what happened to their team, only that they only have each other now.”

RJ reached a hand over the chair and ran it through Casey’s hair, and just listened. Casey leaned into his touch, and continued. “Rocky, your cousin, was replaced by a kid named Justin. His team ended up having to leave him behind to fight the woman who raised me.” He could almost hear RJ’s eyebrows creeping up his forehead. “She was the Princess of Evil in a galactic empire. Eventually she replaced a woman on the Terra Venture team, when Kendrix died.” Casey sighed. “Pain follows Rangers around, even after they’re done. Did Rocky ever tell you how Adam almost destroyed himself trying to morph again to save another Ranger?” RJ tapped his head to indicate negative, so Casey launched into that story as well.

As they sat there, Casey chatting away about nearly every ranger he had ever met, he realized both that he knew far more about the history of Power Rangers than he thought he did, and also that his fears were far better founded than he’d thought they were. From Tommy and Adam’s inability to leave the life behind, a fact that led to both of them almost dying, to Uncle Zhane losing two years of his life to battle injuries, most Rangers had some tragedy in their lives. There was precious little reward for saving the world.

From RJ’s silence, he could tell this wasn’t in the slightest bit news to him. But some of the stories had an element of humor in them, others just seemed like the sort of story RJ would appreciate. So he talked away their watch, and the oppressive sense of Dai Shi or Jelica’s monsters coming to take the eyes away never came.

As time to open shop rolled around, he became aware of Lily, Dominic and Theo lurking in the shadows above them. He supposed he’d been talking too loudly, and they were curious. Or perhaps they simply couldn’t sleep. Either way, they had hung back and watched, and while Casey wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about it, he was grateful they hadn’t interrupted. He rarely had the chance to just, talk at RJ, knowing he would never object, and genuinely enjoyed Casey’s company.

But as ever, the moment was fleeting. As the morning birds began to call, RJ smoothed Casey’s hair back into a manageable look, and looking a little sad, handed him the suitcase to return to Dr. Jennings.

“Training, later?” Casey asked, almost challenging him on whether they were now returning to the roles and rules they’d built.

RJ shook his head slightly, “Not today I think,” he stretched, his back cracking all along the spine. “I’m still sore from being Grisaka’s punching bag. Barring attacks, of course, I’d say today should be light duty for everyone.”

In the days that followed Casey would be grateful for the one day they had. It would be a long time before they had a moment to breathe again.


	18. Chapter 18

18.

When Theo reported Master Swoop missing, showing them the burnt and broken fan Swoop carried with him wherever he went, Casey wasn’t sure what to do. Absence was a different issue than presence. When a monster came it was easy to fight it, and hope it would be destroyed. With a master taken away by monsters, it was a very different question. The only time they had ever had a need to search and rescue it was when RJ had been taken, and Dai Shi had brought him out and paraded him as a prize to be won, rather than forcing them to break into the temple to get him back.

To make things worse, it seemed the three remaining crystal eyes had been unlocked, and three Phantom Beast generals were free. They were strong, much stronger than Casey had anticipated. Even once Lily had returned, warning them that Master Phant was also gone, they were beaten down, though oddly left alive.

In the wake of the battle, he ran with RJ to Master Finn’s house, the canoe Finn had been working on still sitting out, only mildly singed by the monster that had taken him.

He knew RJ had been expecting it, they both had. Still, Casey grabbed his shoulder to stabilize him, offering what strength he could. “We’ll get him back,” he said firmly. “RJ, we will get your father back.”

When RJ didn’t move, Casey stepped in front of him, his heart breaking at the lost, terrified look in RJ’s eyes. “Look at me,” he said firmly, waiting till RJ’s eyes focused on his face. “I know what you’re feeling. I know.” He cupped RJ’s face with one hand, trying not to cry. “But he isn’t dead, if he was they wouldn’t have taken the body. As long as he’s alive, we can get him back. And we will, we _will,”_ he shook RJ sharply as he shook his head. “But the Phantom Beasts will be back. We have to get back to the team.”

RJ took a deep breath, and then another. Casey held his gaze as he controlled his panic, until he could see RJ was completely back with him. He let his hand slip from RJ’s face to his shoulder, continuing to steady him until he was able to move.

They did a quick check of the house, closing the doors and ensuring Finn’s possessions were in better order than they’d been left, then ran back to the city to report back. Even as they told the others, the blows kept coming, as the Spirit Rangers attacked.

It took very little to realize what was being done with the Masters. It was heartbreaking to see RJ targeted by the Shark Spirit, and equally difficult to see Theo and Lily struggling against the spirits of their masters.

But part of Casey was simply glad the Wolf Spirit wasn’t in the mix. He could deal with fighting the spirit of Master Finn. Finn was nothing if not practical, and would have berated him for being too slow to protect others in the name of his own self-interest. Which, Casey acknowledged was definitely among his faults. But in this particular battle, the true tragedy would have been to allow the Masters to destroy the city, and those they loved most in the world, their students and their families.

Keeping that tragedy from happening was proving more difficult than Casey had initially thought when the Spirit Rangers appeared. These were not facsimiles, but the true spirits of their masters. Finn had knocked RJ aside casually, and was pursuing Casey with interest, fighting with sabers with all the skills Finn possessed. The blows were not pulled, and as Finn sliced across his chest, Casey realized how monsters probably felt when _he_ sliced at them.

Pain was the answer. Lots of pain.

Even Master Mode did little to help them. They managed to get in some hits, but without the equal techniques, so did the Masters. Casey and RJ ended up fighting Master Finn again, perhaps inevitable, he reflected miserably as RJ was thrown aside. A pattern, that, he noticed as once again Finn cut into him, sending him back into a pile of rubble.

This time RJ just grabbed the Spirit Ranger, staring at it for a long moment as if managing to see beyond the mask. Through the ringing in his head from the repeated falls, Casey was sure he heard him say, “Dad?”

Then the Shark Ranger vanished, and moments later so did the Bat, and the Elephant. “What was that about?” He asked RJ.

“Not sure,” he replied, “But I may have an idea.”

 

Remote controlled Rangers. There was a twisted reasoning to it. Why kill the Masters when they could be of use? That left them all in quite an interesting bind. As RJ said, it was theoretically possible to disrupt the signal on their Spirits and keep them at bay.

But as RJ reminded him, it wasn’t like disrupting the signal would even help that much long term. But rescuing the Masters was a daunting task. They didn’t know where they were, or how they were being held. Presumably the Phantom Beast Generals were holding them, keeping them under control somehow. Where, how, and whether they could get to them were some fairly key factors as to everyone’s survival that frankly, they didn’t have.

So without a word Casey slipped away, as Theo took a phone call that sounded like it might have been family related. Intriguing, but ill timed. With RJ so tense that Casey was wondering if they would need the protocols they had started creating in case one of them went crazy again, he really needed all heads in the game.

But, with the pizza shop to run, and a surprise visit from Theo’s brother, Casey found himself working alone with RJ in the loft. Trying to locate the Masters fell to Casey, while RJ fiddled with the scanner, hoping to make it powerful enough without the use of it resulting in immediate burnout of its systems.

They worked in silence, the urgent nature of the situation palpable. As he scanned through the data from their many cameras throughout the city, he found only a few short glimpses of odd movement that could indicate it was the monsters. It didn’t seem to lead anywhere in particular either, and a frontal assault on Dai Shi’s temple without sure knowledge that they were there, and where in the massive maze of catacombs they were, was clearly suicide.

Finding out Dominic had gone missing wasn’t relieving, exactly. But it was the first relevant data they’d been given. Inconclusive, was an annoyingly recurring word. But as he headed out with RJ, Casey found himself breathing a sigh of relief to be running through the city, just having a sure course to move towards.

Finding their fears confirmed was less heartening, and immediately being attacked by the Spirit Rangers was, though not unexpected, exhaustive. As ever, Master Finn went straight for Casey while RJ did his best to hold off two Masters at once. He managed to call Theo, and later he could comfort himself with the knowledge that they at least managed to morph and fight the Spirit Rangers for a little while before being tossed into the mirror world.

It was eerie, being able to see the real world but being unable to move. After his initial struggles, Casey centered himself, wondering why his skin was crawling so badly, why he felt the need to scream, or cry, and why in the back of his mind a child’s shrieks were echoing behind him.

The longer he was there, the more afraid he felt. It was so empty and alone. He could go back into an empty whiteness, where there was nothing else. But if he did, he knew, as if it were simply a fact he had forgotten, that he would lose the window, and be trapped there till the monsters came to get him out again, or he died.

So he watched as Theo dodged the Spirit Rangers, and blasted them away, frying RJ’s disrupter. Casey was detached enough from the situation to appreciate that it had worked at all, given that RJ had been far from sure that it would despite all his tweaking. Then it was a delight to see Theo break out his solo moves. Elegant and precise, he cut the monster down to size. Phantom Beast or no, when Theo got serious about fighting, Casey would rarely have bet against him.

Getting out of the mirrors turned out to be easier than he thought. As it clattered to the ground, shaken free from the monster’s belt by one of Theo’s more explosive attacks, a crack opened in the dimensional seal holding him in, and it was beyond natural to slip out through the crack.

While Theo and his brother caught up on the details of, yes, Theo is a Ranger, and RJ looked at his device to see if he could salvage it, Casey signaled Dominic and Lily. Falling into formation, morphing took less energy than usual. Apparently anger could work just as well as not being afraid.

Unfortunately, the monster managed to kick them out of the fight fairly quickly. For once it wasn’t with great pain, so Casey wasn’t too bitter about it. Theo got to show off for his brother, Lewyn, apparently, and RJ managed to beat some of his frustration out as well.

Even so, when he went to talk to RJ that night, RJ simply shook his head, meditating alone seemingly the path he desired. So Casey went to bed. Lily had Theo, they would be okay. Dominic was reading on the roof, chill as a cucumber. RJ was in the most pain, and as always was the last to accept help when he needed it.

 

That night, nightmares came to play. Casey found himself wandering in white space, his only company a strange creature with a metal plated head, eyeslits that slanted and similar armor over its entire form. Its laugh was chilling, and its chest opened to lead through mirror worlds. He was running, hiding under his bed, but unable to hide entirely. He was trapped in white space, unable to escape until one day the mirror opened to deposit another prisoner in, so he ran, slipping through the closing portal and once he found himself in the real world, he was _screaming,_ silvery black lightning streaming off his body.

He was running, running, finding an escape pod and flying toward the nearest blue planet. Flying away from whomever that had been. Then he was falling, and falling, and screaming-

“Casey!” A hand slapped his face lightly several times. Opening his eyes, he found Dominic looking down at him in concern. “Casey, man, you okay?”

Casey took a deep, steadying breath, nodding slightly and accepting the water Dominic offered. “Yeah,” he said hoarsely. “Bad dream.”

Dominic laughed under his breath, “Really? I couldn’t tell.”

Casey chuckled, flopping back into the hammock as limply as he could. “Oh I did not need to remember that right now,” he groaned as the events in the dream returned to him piece by piece. “Don’t tell RJ.”

Dominic sat on a training block that was next to his hammock. “What were you screaming about?”

Casey noticed the dodge, but replied anyway. “I was kidnapped from KO35, a planet where I lived with a woman who had sort of taken on protection duty of me for complicated reasons. I had a dream about how it happened.”

Dominic absorbed this information for a moment. “You’re an alien?” he finally asked. “Why don’t you have an alien animal spirit then?”

Casey laughed till there was a stitch in his side. Flopping out of the hammock, he sat down next to the block Dominic was perched on. “No,” he said at last. “I’m a biological experiment done by some monsters years back.” Always his shorthand, he showed his lack of belly button and hand-waved some pretty illusions into being. “It’s complicated. There’s a demon queen that would give an awful lot to get me back, so, apparently a bounty hunter who puts people in mirrors took on my case, and snatched me from my room.”

Dominic sucked in a sharp breath, touching Casey’s stomach lightly before settling back on the block. “Does RJ know all this?”

“Some of it,” Casey admitted. “I only just remembered what happened to get me back to Earth, but yeah. He knows what I am.”

True to form, Dominic mulled it over, the questions flitting over his face as he reasoned out everything Casey had told him. “Do you get nightmares often?”

“Less than I used to,” Casey replied, pushing himself to his feet and sitting in the hammock for better comfort. “More often than not, RJ sends the wolf to watch over me. I don’t know why, but it keeps bad dreams at bay.”

“Would the rhino do?” Dominic asked, “Or would it help if I moved over by you?”

Casey didn’t answer immediately, eyes wide from the simple, practical and unexpected offer of help. Dominic quirked an eyebrow, and Casey smiled, “Thank you,” he said simply. “It’s worth a try, at least?”

And though more dreams came, memories that were unwilling to be reboxed now that they had come free, apparently he didn’t wake screaming again. It was enough.

 

The fights were taking an annoyingly high mental toll on them. The next morning he got up early to open with a fond smile at Dominic, who was sprawled unceremoniously on the floor with a sleeping bag as a makeshift bed. The rhino spirit was unsubtly staring at him, and with a warm smile he petted its horn, and whispered, “thank you,” before getting ready for the day.

Downstairs he found Lily and Theo, both looking as worn and drawn as he felt. Together they set up shop, finishing long before open.

Theo sat on a stool near where Casey was sweeping fruitlessly at the same patch of floor. “Casey,” he asked quietly. “How is RJ?”

Casey snorted. “He’s unwilling to discuss it.”

“Well, yeah,” Lily said, sidling over to their conversation. “He always does that. But you know him better than any of us. How is he holding up?”

Casey sighed, putting the broom in its place by the fridge and turned to them both. “His father has been captured by Dai Shi, and I’m fairly sure he knows how to defeat him. Only problem is, if we defeat him, we defeat _him._ So, probably not at all okay, after all the last time he refused to so much as talk to me he was turning into his animal spirit.”

“Wait, how long did you know about that?” Theo asked, suspicion sparking in his face. “Was it just after the fact, or?”

Casey scrubbed a hand over his face. “I patched him up after we got him back,” he admitted. “I realized his spirit was unbalanced then. He brushed it off, so I assumed he would be okay.”

Lily put a hand on Theo’s shoulder as he opened his mouth, probably to complain about trusting them. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Casey met her eyes steadily. “He’d been tortured, guys. He deserved some dignity.” Expression narrowing, Casey realized what he meant. “And he deserves the same respect now. He’s struggling, stressed, and grieving for what he might lose. And we _will_ respect his need to deal with it alone. Just,” he raised a finger to cut off their protests, “as he would do for us.”

They wilted under his gaze. But Theo rallied, and said, “They have our masters too.”

“And we will get them back,” Casey said, hoping his poker face was as good as he assumed it was. “But until then, we have got to hold it together. For ourselves, and for RJ.” Casey pulled out some dough that had been proofing over night. “We still have one Master, guys. We can’t lose him too.”

 

It turned out RJ had worked through the night recalibrating the Claw Cannon. It didn’t exactly surprise Casey, but he was alarmed by the glibness of RJ’s referencing that they might personally end up destroying their masters to stop the rampage.

It wasn’t that the thought hadn’t occurred to him, it was an inevitability that sooner or later they would probably end up having to destroy Jarrod despite him being an innocent vessel for a greater evil. Likewise, the masters were being used as conduits for evils beyond their control, mere puppets against them.

His surprise lay more in that RJ was determined to maintain his cheerful wall despite everything. He was serious in his explanation of switching the spirit calibration on the cannon to cancel out spirits. Casey could see the work he had done was doing a number on him. But, still he stood alone.

So as ever, Casey respected the choice. He hung back with Theo and Lily, giving a tiny signal to Dominic to keep an eye on RJ. They would have to follow his lead on this one, but Casey was all too aware of the fact that RJ was running like they’d never seen before. Dominic had, Dominic had been there when RJ and his father were falling out. As irritating as it was, Casey was practical enough to know that Dominic was their only hope of getting through to the man.

So he turned to Lily and Theo, “Go explain the situation to Fran, I doubt we’ll be here much today. Get things as set up as possible. Dominic’s assessing RJ. I have to call someone.”

They didn’t question it, knowing he was doing his best. As RJ went to prepare, Dominic trailing in his wake, Casey went to the phone and dialed Angel Grove.

“Hello, you’ve reached DeSantos dojo and exercise center. How can I help you?” The voice on the other end was slightly harried, probably as it was almost opening hour.

“Rocky,” Casey said quietly, “That you?”

“Yeah?” Rocky’s voice had gone bewildered. “Who is this?”

“Casey,” Casey said glancing around the loft, hoping Dominic was keeping RJ busy. “I need you to tell me if you know how to deal with RJ when he’s desperate.”

Rocky was silent for a long moment. “What happened?” he finally asked.

“Monsters took his dad and are using him to attack us.” Casey summarized. “I don’t have time for details.”

There was a heavy sigh on the other end of the line. “Casey, you probably know him better than I do. He usually responds well to space. But if you need an emergency way to be sure he’ll hold up in a situation like that? There isn’t a good way. It’s a hard situation, so, trust him or don’t.”

Casey sighed, “Thanks. Gotta go, bye!”

Rocky’s protest was cut off with a click. It wasn’t a helpful conversation, but it had bought Casey an excuse to check in on RJ and Dominic surreptitiously. They were talking in raised hushed voices over RJ’s bed.

“RJ, have you really thought this through?” Dominic was asking, arms folded as he watched RJ change into his uniform. “You’re forcing _them_ to destroy their masters.”

“I know,” RJ said, almost calmly. “I had a vision of dad, Dom. He told me to take the risk.”

“Great,” Dominic said sarcastically. “And if he’s wrong and Theo, Lily and Casey are stuck living with this?”

RJ’s tone turned positively black for him. “If it comes down to it I’ll make the call,” he said firmly. “They’ll just be following orders.”

“That’s not how Pai Zhua works and you know it.” Dominic responded. Casey wished he could look into the room more clearly to see their faces. But he didn’t dare. Even with RJ distracted as he was, it was unlikely he would miss Casey’s presence for long.

RJ’s voice rose, in a tone Casey had never heard from his before. “I can’t lose them either, Dom. The Spirit Rangers are masters. I can hold against Phant, or Swoop, but my dad knows me. He knows Casey. He could take us out without ever knowing he did it. He’s trained with you, too, a while ago but he won’t have forgotten.” A heavy sigh, and the squeak of the mattress told Casey one or the other had sat down. “Even if we save them, if they manage to destroy us, it’ll be too late.”

“Is this about Casey?” Dominic asked, causing the breath to catch in Casey’s lungs.

RJ laughed without laughing, an almost bitter sound. “Not everything is about Casey.”

“But this should be,” Dominic countered, the sound of him sitting on the mattress quieter than the first. “RJ, he’s lost his master.”

“I’m still here,” RJ said, sounding as if he hadn’t even thought about what he was saying.

Dominic’s skeptical snort brought a tiny grin to Casey’s face. “Just remember you’re not the only one who would be hurt if your dad gets zapped by that cannon.” The mattress squeaked again, feet thudding on the floor. “Warn a man next time you drop a bombshell like that, is all.” Dominic stalked out, ‘You two talk to each other nicely now, and stop eavesdropping!”

Casey swatted at him, as RJ’s head jerked around, zeroing in on Casey without much effort. Casey shrugged at him, wandering through the doorway and plopping down on the bed. “Well you weren’t about to talk to me, so, this works too.” He said by way of explanation.

He met RJ’s gaze evenly, and frowned at how it was sheepish, angry, exhausted and guilty all at once. “I can’t do this right now,” RJ said, standing up and walking toward the door.

“Then when?” Casey asked, not moving. “After you order me to destroy your dad? My master? Things won’t be better later, RJ.” He took a deep breath, then shook his head. “I’m sorry. I promised myself I’d respect your space. If this is what you need,” he spread his arms in an almost mockingly large shrug, “you got it.”

Pushing past RJ through the door, he almost thought he felt RJ grab at his shoulder. But he didn’t stop, rejoining the rest of the team with a mask of confidence firmly in place, and when RJ joined them, they all followed without a word.

 

RJ gave the order.

Master Finn was gone.

 

Unable to face RJ, Casey sent Lily to deal with him. He wasn’t surprised when she returned, shaking her head. But that didn’t make it any better, either. They were about to head back, when another monster attacked, flanked by the two remaining Spirit Rangers.

He knew he should have called out the Claw Cannon again. It was their best hope against Master Swoop and Master Phant’s spirits, especially with RJ effectively unable to help them unless there was no other choice.

But as he opened his mouth to say it, it felt like time froze, Lily and Theo charging toward the enemy. They had hope he didn’t anymore, they had the knowledge that their masters could still be saved so long as they didn’t destroy them first.

So he held back, and charged into the fray.

Fighting was hard, in no small part because Casey was reluctant to bring out his shark sabers. It was too close to home. None of them had had time to absorb the consequences of their actions, but Casey felt the impending storm of emotions keenly. He could hold them back for a while, the immediacy of the danger to the city was good motivation to concentrate. But the two remaining Spirit Rangers were a constant reminder that they had destroyed Master Finn.

So instead he tried the Strike Rider, usually effective when he didn’t have the energy to give his all. But this time it was deflected as a glancing blow, throwing him unceremoniously to the ground, not bothering to catalogue already healing injuries. He called out Master Mode, sabers and all, knowing there was no other way.

They held out as long as they could, but eventually there was nothing else he could do. Tapping his morpher, he called out for help.

He thought RJ might have responded affirmatively, but it was a brief sound before silence, and RJ didn’t come. They were knocked to the ground again, stood again. But when the monster hit Theo aside, causing his morph to flicker, Casey screamed, the now-familiar cold feeling flooding his veins with freezing fury.

It bought them a moment, only a moment, but a moment to patch Theo up. “Guys, we have to use the Claw Cannon,” Casey said, breathing heavily as his hand hovered over Theo’s injured shoulder, doing his best to magic it back to working condition.

“We can’t do that!’ Lily replied angrily, “you saw what happened to Master Finn!”

“Yeah!” Theo agreed, tugging away from Casey.

Dominic shook his head, his helmet covering his face but his stance unassuming as ever. “I don’t know guys, I don’t think we can win this one.”

“We just have to hold out for RJ!” Lily insisted, “We’ll be fine once he gets here.”

“I called for him half an hour ago,” Casey admitted, the other three stiffened in surprise. “Either there are monsters keeping him busy wherever he is, or he’s not coming.”

Dominic clapped him on the shoulder. “Have some faith, Casey. He’ll get here. We can use the cannon when he does, if he doesn’t have a better way.”

Casey hesitated, torn by the knowledge that if one of them went down they wouldn’t have the chance to use the cannon. Reluctantly, he nodded. “Okay. Dom, you and I will take the monster. Lily, Theo, see if you can’t distract the Spirit Rangers.”

They all nodded. “Right!” Then headed back into the fray of Rinshi, Monster and Spirit Rangers. It was mere minutes later that the Spirit Rangers faltered, and vanished. There was no warning or explanation, they were just, gone.

The Unicorn monster, on the other hand, was very much still there, and while it was easier to hold with four of them, with a lazy yell of “Rinsen Power!” it threw them to the ground.

Casey struggled to stand. He reached for his magic, knowing it was their only hope, but the chill had faded from his veins. The effort of keeping himself fighting had been far too much. _RJ,_ he thought, seeing their death slowly approaching. _We need you._ In his mind’s eye he caught a flash of RJ running in their direction, face set and worried, flanked by the Masters. It was enough, and so he stood again, leading the way as he’d been told to so long ago.

The masters arrived.

Master Finn was alive.

And for a moment, a brief and shining moment, the world felt put to rights again.

 

That night Casey avoided the stairs, the roof, anywhere anyone could find him and instead headed to the park. For once, he wished to be alone with his thoughts. Guilt that had barely had time to form over nearly destroying Master Finn was coalescing in his mind. Frustration at the ease with which the team dynamic was disrupted by the loss of their masters was also whispering at him. Could they really win against Dai Shi if all it took to take their mentor out of the picture was removing Master Finn from the picture? All of them had someone that could be used to distract them, should Dai Shi think of it. Though, Casey supposed, those most important to _him_ were more than strong enough to take care of themselves. Even Uncle Bulk was more than up to the task of dealing with Monsters. Not fighting, of course, but he could run, hide, throw pies, and generally make a nuisance of himself like no one else.

The thought made him smile wistfully. Bulk was alive. He hadn’t really had time to let that fact sink in. It made him wonder just how much he might have leaned on his strange clan of a family if he’d known they were alive when he became a Ranger. He would have been better prepared, that much was sure.

A tingling presence made him sigh. “Hello, RJ.” He said, not moving from his meditative pose. He did, however, open his eyes enough to see the decidedly sheepish expression on RJ’s face. He was leaning against a tree, watching Casey, and while Casey wished he had it in him to turn him away, he waved his hand at the ground next to him, inviting RJ to join him.

They sat together in silence, meditating, or thinking, or perhaps a combination of both. The silence was unusually thick, and was broken like a stick hitting a windshield as RJ said, “I’m sorry, Casey.”

Opening his eyes, Casey raised an eyebrow. “What for?” He relaxed from the lotus position, knowing this conversation wasn’t about training, or even the team really. RJ apologizing wasn’t unheard of, but it was uncommon, and usually only happened if he was approaching them as his equals in some way.

“The past few days were hard on everyone,” RJ said quietly. “But it was especially difficult for you. I’m sorry I couldn’t help more.”

Casey snorted. “You lost your dad, RJ. I understand that.”

“And you lost your master,” RJ countered, echoing the thoughts that had been running through Casey’s head. “And you held the team together, _and_ you held yourself together and never let on that you were sure we’d have to destroy them all.”

Casey sighed, stretching his legs out in front of himself and poking at the grass. “You’ve been talking to Dominic.” He guessed.

RJ flushed, looking away. “He might have mentioned I should probably initiate the conversation this time.”

“And how many times will it take, RJ?” Casey asked, skipping past the various other points they could touch on and getting to the heart of his frustration. “You never talk with us when things go wrong.” He stood up abruptly, looking down at RJ’s startled face. “I know you like to go lone wolf and all, but I thought the incident with you nearly attacking Fran had taught you about communicating your needs. We can’t help you if you’re ignoring us, and you can’t help us either.” Shaking his head, Casey turned into the trees and stalked off.

Had he turned back he might have noticed Dominic slipping out of the trees, clapping RJ on the shoulder encouragingly and saying, “that could have gone worse?”

But he didn’t look back.


	19. Chapter 19

19.

The less said about the television incident the better, in Casey’s not so humble opinion. Getting sucked into their own monitoring system, cut off from their animal spirits (crippling in its own right) then forced to play a sham gameshow was at best embarrassing. In truth, watching Dominic, Theo, and Lily evaporate before his eyes had brought back far too many dark thoughts and memories that he’d have much rather stayed locked back in their neat little mind box.

But he had to admit, not all of it was bad. Knowing what had driven RJ to rescue the masters, knowing the complete progression of events from the Monster’s side as well as the Ranger’s, and perhaps even more disturbingly, knowing that at least one of Dai Shi’s monsters could access their surveillance equipment and see what had happened, if not what was happening, was invaluable.

It had only been a couple of weeks since they had rescued the Masters. Things had been tense, overall, in the loft. Everyone was hurting to some degree, and while Casey did his best, as RJ had acknowledged, his fears and pain ran deeper than most of them. Theo and Lily had faced the possibility of having to destroy their masters. Casey had chosen Master Finn when they were fighting, knowing he couldn’t do that to them without taking the blow himself first. But it was a costly move, as he had no idea how to talk with RJ, no idea how to face the knowledge that he could, and had, destroyed one of their own in the name of survival. That Master Finn had survived was immaterial, ultimately, as the nature of their actions couldn’t be changed even if the outcome was altered.

If nothing else, the farce of a clip show of his life with the Rangers so far had given him back some small confidence that they were doing the right things. Seeing their reasoning on a screen, separate from the experience of the moment, was calming. Calculated in a way that personally firing the cannon could never have been. Distantly, he could see they’d had no other choice.

He also saw reflected in the mirror someone he wasn’t sure he had ever wanted to become. He had kept his cool together, completely solid in the face of the monster zapping his friends to some oblivion he couldn’t fathom. He didn’t know if they were dead, without access to his animal spirit all he had had was the ice in his veins, telling him to destroy the subdimension. Destroy the monster. Destroy the projections. Avenge the losses he may or may not have suffered.

But RJ saved him, saved them all by getting his morpher into the dimension. How, RJ wouldn’t say. Only that Fran thought of it. Which Casey supposed was fair enough, half the time he wasn’t sure of what he was doing either.

The makeshift Hawaii party had also been something of a relief. It was silly, foolish even to party when Dai Shi was no doubt cooking up some new scheme to kill them all. But It lifted their spirits, most of them anyway.

Still Casey found himself on the stairs, head on his knees, wishing for answers to fill the void in his chest.

“You can take my bed if the hammock’s that uncomfortable,” a subdued, yet flippant voice filtered through his ears.

Letting out a puff of laughter through his nose, Casey sat up, smiling at RJ. “Sorry,” he said, shifting over on the steps as if to let him through. “Couldn’t sleep again.”

RJ slid neatly next to him, laying a comforting hand on his back and handing him a mug of cocoa. “It doesn’t help to bottle things up,” he said, clearly trying for his joking mentor tone, but Casey could hear it was halfhearted at best. Meeting his eyes, Casey could see the genuine concern and pain for Casey in RJ’s eyes.

Sighing, Casey sipped the cocoa to stall. “Do you ever wish Jarrod had been the red ranger?” he asked quietly.

RJ visible started in surprise at the question. “No,” he replied honestly. “It does no good to dwell on what might have been, Casey. Only what we wish to come to be.”

Casey shook his head. “I came here knowing nothing,” he said, a point he had labored time and again. But the day had quite literally put on display how true that had been. “That’s nearly gotten us destroyed more than once.”

“And saved us many times over,” Rj corrected gently. “You think outside the box, Casey. For better or worse, you are not a typical Pai Zhua student. You tend to choose the harder ways, and while that can be painful, we would not have survived this long if you were rigid in how you approached a problem as Theo and Lily have been trained to be.”

Casey tilted his head in askance, and RJ thought for a moment. “Remember that time when the kid stole your tip money to buy a kite?”

“Yeah?” Casey said, unsure where he was going with this.

“Well, what did you do?” RJ asked.

“I chased him all over town,” Casey said, grinning at the memory. “Took me ages to catch up with him.”

“All over five dollars,” RJ said fondly. “You could have called the police, you could have let it go. Instead you caught up with him, taught him a lesson, and after he tried to make it right, you gave him a job.” Casey met RJ’s dancing eyes, the corners crinkled with amusement. “You chose by far the most complicated path, and as a result that kid is happier, smarter, and able to have what he wanted. If you’d chosen to call the police, his life could have been ruined forever. If you’d let it go, he might never have learned.” RJ spread his hand in front of himself, almost a shrug, almost a presentation of his conclusion. “Hardest path, but the best possible conclusion.”

Casey laughed, then shaking his head leaned on RJ’s shoulder. “I guess I do.”

RJ smiled almost sadly, looking down at him, then after a moment too long, put his arm around Casey’s shoulders, pulling him closer. “I’m sorry.” He said without context, just sincerity.

Casey laughed. “I know you are,” he said leaning closer. “Me too. Sorry I chose your dad as the test subject. I couldn’t find a better way.”

RJ squeezed his shoulders. “You made a hard call,” he said quietly. “I knew the risks, and so did dad. You didn’t know that, and I should have told you.”

Casey closed his eyes, not feeling absolved precisely, but close enough that he let some of the weight that had been slowly crushing him go. “I think I will sleep in your bed,” he said, half teasing. “You can take the hammock.”

RJ laughed, standing and leading him upstairs. “There’s room enough,” he said, “and it never hurts to be ready for nightmares.”

Casey turned to face him, meeting his gaze firmly and putting his hands on either side of his face. Projecting his movements, giving him every chance to brush him away, he kissed RJ firmly, but briefly, on the lips. Pulling back he met RJ’s eyes, almost a challenge. But RJ just smiled softly, took one of his hands as Casey had his so long ago, when he was uncertain, out of sync and transforming against his will, and kissed his knuckles gently. Letting it fall, he tilted his head in question, and they walked to bed, lying next to each other without touching, and fell asleep.

It had been a long day. But somehow this made it worth it.

 

It was a few days later that Casey got a call from Adam.

“Casey?” he started with, a response Casey was getting quite familiar with.

“Yeah, it’s me,” he said wearily. “Is this important? The six twenty two rush is about to start.”

“It’s about work, actually,” Adam said. Casey could heard a thunk of something glass being put on something wooden on the other end of the line. “A friend of mine in Ocean Bluff runs a dojo, and he hurt himself. He was wondering if I knew anyone who could take a few of the classes. He can verbally instruct the more experienced classes, but the lower levels are a bit too young to manage without someone who can step in if things go sideways.”

“What’s the style?” Casey asked, waving at Theo who had popped up the stairs, gesturing frantically for help.

“That’s the thing,” Adam said cautiously, “he said he studied at your Master Mao’s academy. Mentioned it when he was drunk once. I have no idea what exact style you learned there, and to some degree I don’t want to know. But he asked if I knew anyone else with Kung Fu mastery, and your team sprang to mind.”

“Okay, well, give me his number and I’ll see what I can do.” Casey replied, taking it down and hurrying to help the others with the rush.

So it was that two days later he found himself in charge of a class of level negative one students. His heart went out to them all, they had little to no control over their animal spirits, much less themselves. More than one little bird was flying around in terror, a few aquatic spirits, some big cats and littler cats, one panda which made him smile. Overall it was a good group.

It did, however, lead to constant jibes from RJ about him being a teacher. In some ways he appreciated it, as ever it kept his head even and added levity to the team practice. Free for all sparring in suits wasn’t something they did often, but it was fun when they could. Casey had fun hanging back, watching the others till they ran at him, defending and pushing back before finally joining the fray. At the corner of his mind he felt a familiar presence, a tiger spirit like his own, but much younger that was watching them. But they were morphed, so no harm was done by it.

But after the session, going to teach his class he found the boy whose spirit he sensed was being bullied. Tod seemed to be intent to cause trouble, particularly around Jimmy, and while he could keep order in class well enough, Casey was unsure of what to do.

 

The next morning he went jogging with RJ. It was a chill morning, the beginnings of the end of the summer creeping into the air. It was cool enough they both wore sweatshirts, and sweatpants, but not yet properly into the chill of fall.

“Something on your mind?” RJ asked as they jogged along.

“Yeah,” Casey admitted, explaining the situation. For all RJ’s joking, he had little experience in being a mentor figure. RJ’s input was a relief, as was his perspective on the nature of strength. Who was weaker indeed? He hadn’t thought of that, and he was distracted enough that he missed the mischievous glint in RJ’s eye as he proposed the race to the cliff. He took off running faster, a mistake he would regret.

He reached the cliff and laughed. “He’s smart,” he said fondly, RJ’s laughing, _“I tell myself that every day”_ still echoing in his ears. It was shaping up to be a good day, all told. Dealing with the weakness of a bully was much easier than trying to deal with the strength of one, and gaining teaching advice from RJ was another point of connection that he hadn’t considered when he took the job. If nothing else training the kids would give him insight into RJ’s struggles with them.

Then it all went wrong.

He hadn’t sensed the monster, and it had him pinned before he could properly register it was there. Its hand was on his shoulder, and the world was pain as it dragged at his soul. He could feel something draining from him, leaving him hollow, screaming inside. It took seconds, only seconds for whatever it was to happen. Then RJ grabbed the monster over the cliff, leaving Casey at the top, unable to do much more than breathe, trying not to cry as his mind and body tried to catch up with what had happened.

It was long minutes later that RJ helped him up, explaining what the monster was. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Casey heard himself say distantly. “But, I’ve felt better.”

 

It sank in about how dire the situation was when RJ led him over to the chair. The others gathered around expressing their disbelief at all aspects of the situation. Theo echoing his own thoughts about the chair. But all their words were distant, a roaring emptiness in his mind that he couldn’t entirely understand replacing the colors and sounds of the world he was accustomed to. It was like he was seeing the world through a distant filter, black and white where there had been bright and shining colors and spirits. His chest hurt, his heart hurt, and his shoulder ached. Breathing was a trial. It felt like nothing had happened at all, but also as if there was nothing left of him but the cold, dark core that was whispering far louder than he’d ever heard it before.

He refocused on the world as RJ asked again, “You alright?”

“I’m fine.” Casey insisted, schooling his face into what he hoped was a convincing leader look. He could feel the alien magic creeping into his veins, compensating for the lack he wasn’t entirely willing to face. Having had a moment to breathe he knew what the monster had taken. His shoulder was still burning, and it was a struggle not to put his hand over it as he had seen RJ do many times before. But this was so much worse than then. “Just a-“

“I’m not so sure, amigo,” RJ said, his face and tone far grimmer than his flippant use of other languages would usually allow for. “I think he took a little tiger out of your tank. Try unleashing your spirit.”

Casey tried. Standing was difficult, and the dread that filled him as he went through the motions hurt. Because part of him knew what would happen, as he called out, “Spirit of the Tiger!”

Because there was nothing. “What do we do?” he asked, his breathing tightening again, trying not to panic.

“We get your spirit back,” Dominic said firmly, in a voice that echoed in Casey’s mind as the one that he himself had used to assure everyone when the masters went missing.

So he did his best to listen to RJ’s history lesson. Mostly he caught the bit where if they all teamed up Dai Shi could end up being unstoppable, which sounded, bad. But even that was fairly distant. Caring was a struggle without his spirit.

 

So he went back to teaching the class. He pulled Jimmy aside, showing him how to use the training dummy, the mu ren zhuang, trying to teach him to channel his spirit. Without one, it was somewhat difficult to demonstrate, and while he was keeping himself moving with controlled bits of magic, Casey could feel how much weaker he was without his spirit guiding his movements. Even a few moments of demonstration left him winded, the emptiness catching up with him again.

So he had Jimmy and Todd spar, and while Jimmy showed marked improvement, Todd’s inability to accept Jimmy’s victory was a setback. It was tempting to ban Todd from the dojo for breaking the moral codes of martial arts. Victory at all costs, and talking down to your opponent was dishonorable, and betrayed the basic edicts of the dojo. But, having seen what became of Jarrod, Casey found himself unwilling to take that step. Not yet.

So instead he gave Jimmy a pep talk after class, and was glad that the kid didn’t ask how he knew what his spirit was, or how he knew what the red power ranger’s spirit was. It wasn’t hidden knowledge by any means, any number of bystanders would have heard them yelling their spirits at various times during fights. But that didn’t mean it was common knowledge either. Most people ran away from the monsters and the consequent fighting. To know much about the rangers people would have to be either fortunate enough to be nearby and listening while still safe, or suicidally obsessed with them and putting themselves in danger.

But he felt better for having at least bolstered the kid’s confidence a little. Perhaps he was interfering too much, he thought as he cleaned up after the class before handing the dojo off to the owner and the senior students. But he wasn’t RJ. At the end of the day giving people space to find their own answers only went so far, particularly with kids.

He got back to the pizza parlor as they were closing, only to have a vision of Whiger, calling him to fight for his spirit. More calling him to die, he suspected. When he told the others, he was surprised that RJ all but shoved him into a chair, leading the others to fight Whiger.

It was unlike him, Casey thought as he waited for their return. RJ had never been so protective of them. True, Casey’s “condition” as RJ put it was dire. He felt like he was dying, slowly from within. But it wasn’t like there was much difference between sitting and slowly dying, and moving and slowly dying.

But he went to the loft, watching the battle numbly. Five against four, and only three needed to thoroughly kick all the Rangers’ butts. Distantly, Casey appreciated RJ’s continued attempts to get Whiger, but anyone could see it was in vain. Dai Shi had powered up. The Phantom Beast Generals had teamed up with him. As RJ had said, they were nigh unstoppable.

A voice in the back of his head whispered he should go, help them, do something. But he knew even if he went, he would only make everything worse. It had clearly been a trap for him, and him alone. For whatever reason, Dai Shi _really_ wanted him dead. So Casey sat, and watched, and desperately hoped that Dai Shi would once again turn his back on total victory, and let his friends live.

Which for no apparent reason, he did.

They reconvened, and while Casey had to get back to the dojo to teach the late class, RJ’s indignant assertion that _he_ made his spirit stronger, not the other way around, echoed in his ears as he went. _They may be so,_ he thought as he walked, _but I don’t have one at all right now. All I have is demon energy, and emptiness._

But he got near the dojo only to find Whiger attacking his students. Not seriously, just scaring them a little. It was oddly civilized, he thought distantly, just scaring them away instead of killing them. If nothing else it seemed stealing his spirit had imparted some morals into the monster.

Seeing his students watching he ducked into a shadow to call the others. Then he tried to morph. It hurt, pulling at shards of spirit that were all he had left. It wasn’t enough energy to transform. Thankfully the others showed up and engaged Whiger.

After watching for a few moments, Casey realized something. “I make my spirit stronger,” he said to himself, taking a deep breath. He didn’t have the tiger to call on, but he did have magic, and the borrowed spirit of the gorilla. Combining the two he could make it strong enough to transform, maybe even fight.

So he did. Using sheer determination, and letting the dark, freezing cold flood his veins again, a sensation he worried he was becoming entirely too used to, he called out once more, “Spirit Unleashed!”

Theo and Lily joined him, their shock that he was able to transform at all telling him plenty about how much RJ truly believed what he’d said before. But it was enough to summon the claw cannon, for all the good it did them. Thankfully Jimmy was there, and had discipline enough to help them. He was a brave kid, Casey reflected as they fired at Whiger. The kid’s spirit was unrefined, and he had to help guide it a little, but their blast knocked Whiger down long enough that RJ and Dominic could get up.

Whiger grew, of course, and Casey was somewhat astonished that there was enough tiger left in him that RJ could form his megazord. Then again, he was fairly sure RJ had absorbed some of his and Theo’s energies by borrowing their spirits so often, like as not it was RJ himself willing the tiger into being.

Casey also appreciated RJ’s single minded determination to get his spirit back for him. But fighting to retrieve wasn’t really a choice. Even Dominic was brushed back easily by two tiger spirits, and when Lily called for a stampede, despite all the magic and the borrowed spirit, Casey found it increasingly difficult to stand, much less fight.

But Theo’s encouragement and his own sheer will drove Casey back to his feet, focusing on the battle once more. He felt like he was burning himself out, draining the very power that was holding him together, but it was worth it as they fell into stampede formation, attacking Whiger with all they had.

They knocked Whiger back to small form, which was enough to count as a win. But he couldn’t hold full morph a second longer, and fell over, only staying on his knees with the help of Theo and Lily.

They let the megazords fall away, and Casey found himself surrounded by his friends looking at him in concern. Without a word, RJ put a hand on his shoulder, the one Whiger had drained him from. It took what little will Casey had left to not flinch away. But RJ just closed his eyes, gently imparting what strength he could as Dominic kept watch and Lily and Theo shielded them from the rest of the world.

“It’s not much,” RJ said after a moment, letting his hand drop away. “But it might get you through the class.”

Casey let his head fall against RJ’s shoulder for a moment, taking a deep breath. “Thanks,” he said before forcing himself to his feet again. “I’ll see you guys in a bit.”

“You guys go back,” RJ said, putting Casey’s arm over his shoulders. “I’ll go with Casey and make sure we’re not attacked again.”

The others nodded, heading back to Jungle Karma Pizza at a run. Casey leaned heavily on RJ the short distance to the dojo, grateful that the students were already inside. “Thanks,” he said again, as RJ gently let him go before sitting in one of the chairs in the waiting area for parents, silently establishing his watch.

Though Casey could feel his worry radiating off him, he mostly felt comforted by the knowledge that they would have at least enough time to evacuate the kids if another Phantom Beast General chose to attack. So he went in and congratulated Jimmy. He was proud of how Jimmy chose to handle the opportunity Casey gave him, and it almost made up for the way his mind felt like it was clouded over, and his body felt like it was going to disintegrate.

He held up through the class, then RJ helped him close up the dojo, and half carried him home.

 

That night he couldn’t sleep. He wrapped himself in a blanket and sat in their sparring and meditation space behind the chair. He sat there, moon shining down on him from the windows above, and stared into the darkness of the room. He wasn’t surprised when RJ joined him, putting an arm around his shoulders and pulling him close.

“We’ll get your spirit back, Casey,” he said, as if trying to convince himself.

“What if we can’t?” Casey asked, leaning against him and staring into the loft without seeing. “How long can a human live without their animal spirit?”

RJ’s grip tightened, “It won’t come to that,” he insisted.

“I’ve noticed,” Casey said, taking a breath and feeling it burn in his lungs. “You’ve been trying desperately all day to get it back, even when the others were in danger of dying. You’re never that desperate RJ.”

For a moment there was silence, then RJ admitted softly, “I am now.”

“How long?” Casey asked again.

“I don't, know.” RJ said, sounding lost. “I thought I was going to die when Dai Shi destabilized my spirit,” he admitted. “I can’t imagine if he’d taken it. Probably a few days at most, for most people.” He shifted Casey closer, putting a hand over his heart, closing his eyes and listening for a moment. To what, Casey didn’t know. After a few minutes he opened his eyes again with a sigh. “You survived that poison,” he said without much hope in his voice. “It’s likely you’ll last longer than most people. But I’ve never heard of someone surviving their spirit being completely stolen.”

Casey nodded numbly. “I’ll have to make the most of the next few days then,” he said quietly, closing his eyes and leaning into RJ’s warmth. “If nothing else I’ll make sure we take Whiger out, I don’t want him using my spirit against you.”

“No, Casey.” RJ said firmly. “We’ll find a way to get your spirit back. Until then you just have to hold on. Hang in there, conserve your energy.”

Casey didn’t have the energy to laugh, or snort skeptically. So he fell asleep there, lying in RJ’s arms. In the morning he woke in RJ’s bed, still tightly held in his arms as if by holding onto him RJ could keep him alive.

 

The morning itself brought a bright new day of customers and food. The day was long, and RJ carefully steered Casey out of the way of most of it. He was relegated to jobs like cashiering, usually a job done by all of them as they could. Clearly RJ had spoken with the others as they did their utmost to not need help despite the dismal tips and chaotic tables.

It was quietly appreciated. Casey found his energy slowly returning throughout the day. True it was mostly just the magic, but it was enough that by the end of the day he felt almost alive, enough to join the others in hiding from the albino rat that had somehow escaped in the restaurant.

They ended up scrubbing the restaurant with disinfectant for a couple hours, which with all five of them didn’t take very long, and as much as the day to rest had been appreciated, Casey found being useful and cleaning was almost better for his spirits.

Once they were done they partook in some cohesion exercises, bouncing a soccer ball between them. It could barely be considered training, but it was fun, and gave Dominic a chance to show off.

When the alarm went off, Casey felt almost ready to jump into action, but RJ held him back. His excuses were weak, mind the store, watch the rat, and the ever present “without your spirit you’re weaker,” which was particularly ironic given his attempts to get Casey to show some life the day before had been precisely the opposite. But frustrating as it was, Casey did understand. The more energy he expended on morphing, the faster he would fade away.

Perhaps it was fortunate he had been left behind, however, as mere moments after RJ vanished through their vine exit, Whiger called for him telepathically again.

He was led back to the cliff where Whiger had first stolen his spirit. It was only a day or so before, but felt like much longer than that. Whiger confronted him angrily, but was visibly weaker than he’d ever been before. He looked almost like Casey felt, hollow, fading away.

He quickly realized what it was. “You don’t have Rinsen power?” Casey asked, hope stirring in the back of his heart for the first time since his spirit was stolen. If Whiger had no Rinsen, then Dai Shi had not set another trap. Making it even better, Casey had some hope of defeating him.

He was grimly amused, however, as Whiger stated that Casey would pay for what Dai Shi had done to him. As if Casey was somehow responsible for the frankly deranged actions of an ancient spirit.

Their fight was brief but brutal, matching styles leading to a draw in almost every way. For a moment, just a fleeting moment, Casey was close to getting his spirit back. He could feel it returning up his arm, calling for him to get it back. But then Whiger threw him off, falling over the edge of the cliff.

Through some instinct, though where it came from Casey couldn’t say exactly, he caught Whiger, and with the strength of a demon coursing in his veins he held the four hundred pound monster and pulled it up the cliff, refusing to let Whiger fall to smash at the bottom of the cliff. He wasn’t sure why. Whiger would probably have survived long enough for Casey to hop down and get his spirit back. Even if he hadn’t, the promise he had made to RJ the night before that he would ensure Whiger was out of he way before he died, that his spirit couldn’t be used against the Rangers ever again, dictated he should have let Whiger fall.

But he pulled him up onto the cliff again, and ignoring the monster wingeing about its honor, and shame, and whatever else, he faced his enemy, really seeing what it was for once.

“Why?” Whiger asked, which was a legitimate question that even Casey wasn’t sure of the answer to.

“It’s just what we do,” he settled on. It was true enough.

The call for help came, and while in that moment he could have taken back his spirit, he turned and ran to help instead. Whiger was pathetic in his agony, and Casey was feeling far more alive than he had since Whiger stole his spirit. Whether he had gotten a boost when he almost stole his spirit back, or had just adjusted for the moment to his new situation, in that moment his friends were more important. So he ran to their aid. After all, RJ would never have summoned him without being utterly desperate.

 

He was too late.

He returned to find an empty city, streets bare of human life, as if it had always been that way. A ghost town in the truest sense, as he could hear echoes of the fight in dust hanging in the air. It pricked at his skin, whatever dark power was in it repelled by the magic in his veins. He called for his friends, knowing there would be no answer, but hoping all the same that one of them would be there, could somehow tell him what had happened.

Only Whiger responded.

It was hard to swallow that all four had been captured. True, the Masters had been captured but that had taken far more than a mere beast battle. But it seemed the Phantom Beasts were a league of their own, able to defeat them all without even trying hard.

It was the visible proof that Casey’s own spirit was all that was holding Whiger together that decided him. True, it could be a trap and Casey could end up dead. But a chance was better than none, in the end. So he followed Whiger, and to his surprise he did indeed bring him right to his friends.

Camille wasn’t far off when she pointed out that neither of them was up to fighting particularly. But together he and Whiger did their best. It was the strangest team up Casey had ever been a part of, their identical forms making the fight well measured despite the lack of power behind both of their blows. His friends’ fear for him, small though their voices were, resonated in his ears, and he had to admit things looked pretty bad. But then Whiger threw himself in front of Casey, taking Camille’s blow.

“You have to trust me,” Whiger said roughly after falling on top of him.

Casey was too tired to grin, but replied, “What do I have to lose?”

To his surprise, Whiger slammed Casey’s hand onto his chest, forcing Casey’s spirit out of his form and back where it belonged. Casey’s breath caught as his life force flooded back, feeling Whiger physically grow weaker as it did so. _“Hardest path,”_ RJ’s words echoed in his mind, _“best possible conclusion.”_

And it seemed so, as he found himself burning with pent up energy. Where a moment before he could feel himself being tethered to the world only by determination and magic, he found himself feeling more alive than he had ever felt before. Two tiger spirits were more than a match for even a Rinsen fueled Camille, and together he and Whiger cast their spirits to send her flying.

She fled, and Casey took a deep breath. He felt whole, and so it was almost a surprise when Whiger fell, having given up the glue that was holding him together to save Casey. “Why?” It was Casey’s turn to ask.

“Because Dai Shi has proven to be my enemy,” Whiger replied, “and you have proven to be my friend.”

He faded away, a haunting image of what Casey knew may well have happened to himself in a few days had Whiger not returned his spirit. He knelt there for a long moment, hand still outstretched, feeling the sad particles of what had once been Whiger, fading away.

A slow, burning rage crept into him, fury at the loss of a kindred spirit, fury at the lack of care Dai Shi showed for his most loyal supporters. Fury at the loss that had been so unnecessary. True, Whiger would have had to die one way or another, but it should have been on the battlefield, it should have been facing the Rangers honorably. Anything other than the strange fortune of his Rinsen being stripped from him, and his honor sending him to Casey to die as honorable a death as could be prised from his banishment.

Standing he morphed, viciously cutting the cages away with his shark sabers, trusting his instincts that told him that would break the spell of the dust. Most people were sent back to where the had been, but the Rangers appeared next to him, whole, well, and while mildly shaken, clearly happy to see him.

He led them back to fight the monsters, dragging them along with an energy he was pulling from his anger, and from the adrenaline of his spirit having been returned. The fight was harsh, and he pulled no punches. The others were tired, so he was able to take out his feelings from the past few days on the two monsters.

Dominic handed over his morpher again, allowing Casey to finish it. Rarely had a kill felt quite as satisfying. They grew, but for once Casey felt almost eager to destroy them again. They had nearly cost him his friends. No matter their strength, he would see them punished. They stampeded, and while they took a hit, if the past days had taught Casey anything it was that pure determination and stubbornness could work miracles. They added spin to their stampede, they hit them again, and again, and again, until they did not stand.

 

That night it was Casey that brought RJ cocoa. He found him staring disconsolately at where the rat cage had been, Maurice having been returned to his home. He laughed quietly, hugging him from behind and offering the drink over his shoulder. “You doing okay?”

RJ started, taking the cup with one hand and turning around, dislodging Casey’s loose hold. “Thanks,” he said, sitting down properly to drink it. Casey took a sip of his own, smiling warmly.

“Why so troubled?” he asked seriously, “we won a pretty important battle today.”

RJ glanced him over, and said quietly. “I know. But it doesn’t make much sense.”

“Yeah,” Casey allowed, taking another sip of cocoa. “Whiger’s Rinsen being taken away was, unexpected. But if it hadn’t been, what happened to him would have happened to me, right?”

RJ shrugged, clearly not wanting to think about it. “Hard to say. Probably.”

Casey nudged his knee with a foot, causing RJ to meet his gaze. “I’m good, RJ. We’re all here. We’re all okay.”

RJ nodded, a hint of a smile on his face. Casey laughed out loud as a thought occurred to him. “You never believed I could be saved, did you?”

He regretted saying it immediately, as RJ held his gaze, looking sadder than Casey had ever seen him. “No,” he agreed. “I’ve only ever heard of three cases of peoples spirit being stolen, always by an identical spirit, and all three died before the day was out. Their spirits couldn’t be found in the Spirit World, as far as lore tells it they’re among those that never existed.”

“Well Whiger gave it back,” Casey replied firmly, poking him again with his toe. “Whiger gave his existence so I could keep fighting. I won’t waste that.”

“None of us will,” RJ assured him. “Though none of the others know how bad things were.”

“What did you tell them?” Casey asked idly, putting his cocoa down and leaning back on his hands. “They were all acting like I was made of glass yesterday.”

“That you’d be more easily tired than usual and to let you rest as much as they could,” RJ replied, firmly meeting Casey’s eyes. “Dom knew I was leaving things out, but I thought Theo and Lily would do better if the news was broken to them gradually.”

Casey nodded slowly, “Good call,” he allowed. “How long did you think I would hold out for?”

RJ shook his head, “I had no idea. You managed to morph without a spirit, Casey. That almost gave me hope that you could survive despite the improbability. But then seeing you last night, I was almost sure that you were going to fade away while you slept.”

“Huh,” Casey digested the information for a moment, before nodding in concession. “I guess we got lucky again.”

“You thought out of the box again,” RJ countered. “You befriended a monster, I didn’t think that was possible.”

Casey shrugged, sitting up and grabbing his cocoa again, suddenly self-conscious. “We were both dying,” he said, looking away. “It would’ve been wrong to destroy him. Besides, we were both tiger spirits. That had to count for something.” Casey stopped talking, realizing he wasn’t making much sense.

But RJ smiled, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I’m proud of what you did, Casey,” he said warmly. “But I wish you had put yourself first.”

“If I had,” Casey cautioned, “I would never have found you.”

“I know.” RJ said, sitting back and drinking his cocoa. “But someday that willingness to forgive might just get you killed.”

Casey sighed, scooting over to sit by RJ, pressing their shoulders together. “Now you know how we felt before you were a Ranger.”

RJ looked at him a question, and Casey raised a hand, ticking off instances. “The time you took on Dai Shi without a suit and won, the time you handed yourself over to him, that rather absurd stretch where you were transforming into a werewolf and refused any help at all, ever.” He looked at RJ significantly, and RJ had the presence of mind to look mildly embarrassed.

“I can’t help who I am, Casey,” he said.

“I’m not asking you to,” Casey replied, “just remember you’re not the only one who worries.” He leaned against RJ a little more, turning his face away to stare into the darkness. “I was terrified today, when I found the city empty.”

RJ smiled wanly, taking his hand and squeezing it. “You’re right,” he said quietly. “We won a pretty important battle today.”

Casey smiled crookedly, dropping his gaze. “We did,” he agreed, squeezing RJ’s hand in return. “And I’m alive, RJ.” He turned around, still sitting on the floor, to face RJ. “Despite everything we all are. Whatever comes next we’ll deal with it. Together.”

“Yeah,” RJ agreed, smiling in return, and taking another sip of cocoa.


	20. Chapter 20

20.

The next few weeks were fairly quiet with the exception of Dominic’s crush on Meryl, and the terrifying monkey multiplier formula. Casey almost felt badly for Dominic, who so obviously wanted to get to know Meryl despite his almost teenage awkwardness about it. It would have been adorable if it didn’t cause Fran so much pain. Fortunately, as a genetic engineer, Meryl had very little time for Dominic, and despite a day of rather intense fighting that even necessitated calling on the Spirit Rangers, all was well that ended well. Fran ate pizza with Dominic in the most painful friends-not-quite-friends date ever, that somehow Casey still managed to find endearing for the moments he poked his head in on.

But apart from the monkey clones from hell things were quiet. Casey found he had time to visit Master Finn for some training. But on a quiet Thursday, when he got there he found Master Finn putting sealant on the bottom of the canoe he had been building, with no sign of their weapons, or any training gear whatsoever.

“No training today?” he guessed, glancing over the boat.

Master Finn smiled at him warmly, gesturing him over toward the lake he lived by. “There’s very little else I can teach you, I’m afraid.” He said as they wandered by the shore. “Apart from life experience and practice, which you’ll manage quite well on your own, I do believe I’ve taught you all I can of the shark technique without your animal spirit itself being the shark.”

Casey thought about it for a moment, and it made sense. As much as he loved the shark technique, and as effectively as he could borrow Master Finn’s spirit, he knew that none of the techniques he had learned from his secondary masters fit him quite as well as the more down to earth catlike forms RJ had introduced them all to. RJ had done his best to teach them techniques tailored to their spirits, and their spirits in turn tailored his teachings to their needs. Master Finn’s technique had always been and would always be just that, his technique.

“Thank you for everything you’ve taught me, Master,” Casey said, bowing respectfully.

“None of that,” Master Finn replied, patting him on the shoulder. “It was my honor to teach you, and I learned much from you in return. I’ve noticed of late I’ve been learning more from you than you from me,” he admitted, looking out over the water. “It’s always a clear sign that a student is a student no longer when that happens.”

“What did I teach you?” Casey asked, confused.

“Why Casey,” Master Finn teased. “You’ve been teaching me things since the day we met. How to understand RJ, for one.”

Casey laughed, picking up a stone and sending it skipping out over the water. “He’s not that difficult to understand.” A fond smile spread over his face as the stone skipped seven times. “He just likes to pretend he is.”

“He’s a stubborn man,” Master Finn said, coming up behind Casey and laying a hand on his shoulder, a move that made Casey laugh silently. Like father like son, it would seem. “But even so, you seem to have reached his heart.”

At that Casey did laugh. “I suppose he’s not great at subtle,” he teased, turning to face Master Finn. “I take it you have something to say about it?”

Master Finn’s expression was warm, but sad. “It troubles me that he is your master,” he admitted, “but I trust you both to do what you think is best. I’d hate to see either of you hurt.”

Casey met his gaze as reassuringly as he could. “I know.” He searched for anything else to say, but Master Finn wasn’t wrong. It was potentially a thoroughly messy situation that so far had been kept simple by the simple fact that survival, and the greater battle was more important than the usual rules of interaction between a master and student. There had been a power dynamic in the beginning that was definitely tilted in RJ’s favor. But time and training had changed that. While RJ was without a doubt the more experienced martial artist of the two, he had come to defer to Casey on the battlefield, and consult with him off it. Even training of late had felt more like routines to remain battle ready, and since Casey had almost died, whatever formality had survived the constant battering the year had provided it, had melted away.

But to explain that would have been far too complicated. So he simply met Master Finn’s gaze with his best leader face, and said, “Trust us, Master.”

 

His discussion with Master Finn had two side effects. Firstly, he now found himself with free time to do as he pleased. Second, he realized that apart from the meditation picnic and going to tell Uncle Bulk of his not-dead status, training and making pizza had dominated his interactions with, not only RJ, but the entire team. It had been a long time since he had done anything purely for fun.

So that night after they closed up shop, he decided to rope the others into doing something, anything, not training related. In normal clothes. Letting go of Rangering as much as possible, even just for a moment. But it became quickly clear that his plans would be foiled, as Theo and Lily were working on a form and showed no signs of finishing any time soon, and Dominic was out doing something with Fran.

So he sat on the back porch in his sweatshirt and sweatpants, and all but sulked until RJ happened across him.

“You look down,” he observed.

Casey snorted, “No, really?”

RJ’s eyebrows narrowed in concern, and he plopped down next to Casey, unheeding of the groceries he had been carrying. “How can I help?”

Casey shrugged. “I guess I just wanted to have a team break.”

“Team break?” RJ asked, tone curious but sincere as ever.

Casey flushed and looked away. “I was talking with your dad earlier and realized, we’ve never _done_ anything as a team besides train, make pizza and fight monsters. I got it in my head that we should all go _do_ something together, but everyone is busy.”

RJ leaned forward thoughtfully. “Well, what would you have wanted to do?”

“I was thinking we could all go to a movie together,” Casey said, “go out to eat after, get some ice cream or something. I don’t know, I don’t really have much experience with friends and bonding time.”

“Hmm, no, I suppose you wouldn’t,” RJ agreed, tactfully avoiding the past while acknowledging the sentiment. “Well, I’m game.”

“What, really?” Casey’s head shot around, eyes wide.

“Sure,” RJ stood up, picking up the groceries again. “We could all use some fun. If the others don’t want to come it can just be you and me, no problemo. But I’ll go ask them.”

He swept inside, and though tempted to follow, Casey kept himself on the porch, his skin tingling with excitement. It had been years since he’d last seen a movie, even longer since he’d seen one in a theater. He’d been twelve at oldest, given that he couldn’t remember going to a theater after everyone was presumed dead. Going with friends, or, even just RJ, was suddenly significantly more important to him than he’d realized when the idea first crossed his mind as he took his leave of Master Finn.

RJ returned in one of his striped shirts, looking much more like the goofy fellow they’d first met than he had since Dai Shi captured him. Casey stood up, asking, “No takers?”

“Afraid they’re dead set on perfecting their kata,” RJ said lightly, “I’ll have to do.”

Casey laughed, and they wandered off into the shadowed streets. They made their way to the nearest theater, an old, run down place that showed older movies for cheap. They chose the cuter looking film of the two options, and it ended up being a three dimensional animation about a garbage collecting robot that saved humanity in space. Sort of, as RJ pointed out as they left the theater, the humans had clearly evolved without the necessary muscle mass to exist on the Earth much less clean it up.

This led to a lively conversation about whether the robotic ship was to blame for the ostensible doom of humanity, or whether the humans should have known better. Casey took the side of the humans being far too gullible, RJ meanwhile was quite sure that the robot must have been corrupted to keep them in space.

“Or maybe it knew they couldn’t survive,” Casey pointed out as they waited for their food. They had ended up at a Thai curry place, and were sharing a tofu curry dish, and an order of Pad Thai. “If the robot’s directive was to keep humanity safe and happy, was it wrong to follow its directive? When it comes down to it, morally speaking it's the humans who messed up.”

“Ah, but should the humans be punished for something they know nothing about?” RJ asked. “Clearly the original builders should have designed the AI better. They’re lucky it didn’t realize the waste of resources that the humans were.”

Casey was spared having to continue his argument, as he was losing track of who was arguing what as he so often did with RJ, when their food arrived.

Once they were done, they walked a ways, not particularly in a hurry to get to dessert, nor back to the loft. They wandered past the dojo where Casey still worked on and off as needed, and the shop the kid had bought that one kite from. Through the park where Casey had run into Tommy, and slowly toward the soft serve place Casey had had ice cream with Jason at. Miraculously, they were open at midnight, and they both got a cone, eating it slowly as they headed home. It was an odd sort of outing, but it set Casey’s heart at ease in an unexpected way.

As they reached the loft, he turned and gave RJ a hug. “Thank you,” he said with all the heartfeltness he could muster. “It felt good to be normal, for a bit.”

RJ held him tightly, squeezing till Casey was sure his ribs would crack, but he didn’t want to protest it. It was warm. Instead of entering, RJ led him to the stairs and started pointing out what few stars could be seen through the city’s light pollution.

It was a while before they went inside, and when they did Casey’s heart felt light. As if there really was a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, now that he knew there was more than just the fight binding him to everyone. His odd little found family would still be there when everything was over.


	21. Chapter 21

21.

The day of the master’s exam wasn’t the worst in Casey’s memory, there were several that could eclipse it without even trying in terms of sheer misery. However, few had been as much of a moral, emotional and mental blow.

It had all started when Swoop and Phant had both delivered the same news to Theo and Lily as Master Finn had to Casey. They had all grown beyond their teachings. Thus it was that RJ barged into the restaurant as they closed, and dragged them away. Theo’s jibe about the mysterious trip not being about the destination, and RJ’s assertion that this time it was, piqued Casey’s interest, as did the excitement on RJ’s face. But an instinctual fear lodged itself in Casey’s stomach, for what reason he wasn’t entirely sure.

They were lined up before their secondary masters, and the Master’s test was announced. Casey didn’t feel ready. At all. All his instincts screamed at him that this wasn’t right, that he wasn’t ready. In most ways he had become the leader of their strange little group, but when it came to Pai Zhua even now he tended to look up to Lily and Theo for their skills and knowledge. So when it came time for the challenge he was scared enough to ask RJ for help.

The sad look on RJ’s face as the words came out of his mouth made his heart beat faster. “I’ve taken you as far as I can,” was all he received. I can’t help you, in essence. They were words he had never thought to hear from RJ, words he was sure for a long moment, that he must have heard wrong. But he had not, and so he fought Master Finn knowing full well that he wasn’t ready, that even if he could defeat his Master that was no reason to believe that he was one himself. He followed the techniques Lily and Theo used, tracking both his own battle and theirs as had become his way as team leader. He won the battle.

But as no stripes appeared on his arm, he knew a greater battle had been lost, though why, or how, weren’t clear to him. He had fought the battle assigned, he had won it. But apparently that was the wrong question. As ever, Pai Zhua made less sense than it should have to him. Always fighting each other, he thought bitterly as they made their way back, Theo and Lily vibrating with excitement though trying to be respectful of his pain.

They kept it up, too, wearing sleeves to keep from reminding him of it, rallying around him again despite being masters, and in many ways no longer needing his leadership. But it was getting ridiculous. The pizza ovens kept the room far too warm for that, and he probably could have been okay with them rolling up their sleeves if Dominic hadn’t chimed in that not everyone _had_ to be masters.

They didn’t complain as he left. He knew they probably wouldn’t have blamed him if he’d hidden in his room all day. Theo and Lily knew him well, and knew this was his most vulnerable point that had been stabbed with a hot poker. So he ran, wearing a grey hoodie over his usual red clothing, the lack of reminder of what he was a tiny relief. He ran without purpose, just frustration at having been thrown into a position he wasn’t ready for, about being a student for only a year where the others were for ten or more and still being given the same expectations. He ran for the pain of the distance RJ was putting between them, he hadn’t spoken with him since the exam. His feet pounded the ground and the air burned his lungs yet he ran.

As he ran, he heard a scream that was somewhat familiar, and ran towards it only to find Camille about to be destroyed by three monsters. Before he could make any decisions about whether to help her, or ignore the situation, or anything else, Dai Shi appeared from nowhere, knocking the monsters away and commanding they leave her alone. He went and knelt over her, looking, concerned? Caring, where Casey was quite sure Dai Shi never had been.

After seeing Camille was okay, he turned and destroyed two of the monsters, before returning to Camille. But when he spoke, his voice was not as low as it had been. But as he ran to return to the others, Monster Three grabbed him and initiated battle.

The day was just shitty enough that he felt justified in using the crutch RJ had made for him so long ago, when he could barely fight and needed the boost. Strike Rider didn’t let him down, it bought him a moment to mentally switch to fighting. And for a while, he held his own. He felt like he had when RJ first joined the team, out of place in his suit, his spirit not quite up to snuff. But it was a situation where fighting for dear life was his only option, made all the worse when the remaining two Phantom Beast Generals appeared to aid their monster.

Thankfully the others arrived, and Casey grabbed RJ’s shoulder gratefully, their presence a relief and the familiarity of the lineup a balm on his heart. They summoned the Spirit Rangers, knowing the Generals wouldn’t be playing, and the battle was on.

The Spirit Rangers held the Phantom Beast Generals at bay while the rest of them fought the monster that had attacked Casey. Their formation was perfect, timing in sync. The fight against the larger form was likewise simpler than Casey had anticipated it being. It seemed having two extra masters on the team gave them a power boost.

But when it was over and he told the others what he had seen, Jarrod, not Dai Shi, saving Camille, they were skeptical. Neither Theo nor Lily were willing to entertain any possibility that Dai Shi and Jarrod could be fighting themselves, or that Jarrod could be winning. It was a lonely feeling, after the simplicity of their battle, to realize that his words could hold so little weight for them.

To cap the day in all its glory, he asked RJ for more training, for more to work with. But RJ’s emotional distance only grew. “We’re done training here,” he said firmly. “I’m through showing you things, Casey.”

The words cut deep, as did the careful mask RJ kept affixed on his face. As if there was truly nothing else RJ could do for him. It was like a final door was slammed shut in Casey’s face, the answers he sought were no longer here. As if RJ was telling him to leave. After their talk of facing the enemy together, of facing the future as a team, it was stunningly hurtful.

So he left. That night he slept outside, on a bench, as he had when he had no home. Curled into a grey sweatshirt, he chose a place in the park no police would check, and knew none of the team would try and find him. It didn’t help, being alone. But it was easier than feeling so alone in the loft. Lily and Theo were trying so hard to keep him from feeling the shame of his failure, the full extent of his loss. But RJ had no such tact, no clear tact at all really. He was acting as if Casey had only ever been a student, and now that he had nothing more to learn, their friendship ceased to matter.

A quiet part of Casey’s mind whispered that RJ was probably hurting too, that watching his students fail had never brought him joy. But that was a small comfort in the face of his own failures.

The one comfort he had was the realization that they wouldn’t have to kill Jarrod to win. There was an opportunity there where he had seen none. If Jarrod was fighting Dai Shi, if it had been _Jarrod_ who had taken Whiger’s Rinshi and sent him out into the cold, there was some small hope that they could destroy the other Phantom Beast Generals. Because on their own, it was all but impossible.

As the birds began to sing, he made his way back to the loft to shower and open shop. But he was no less troubled for his night in the cold.

 

He found Dominic in the restaurant sitting and reading. He set up the kitchen before braving his presence.

“You look wrecked,” Dominic observed quietly.

Casey couldn’t argue. It had been a long night, thoughts spinning in his head till he thought he’d go insane. For the most part Dominic’s “read a book” pitch sounded like a useless escape from what he was dealing with, but at the word ‘redemption’ Casey’s interest was piqued.

“You knew Jarrod, right?” he asked, barely noticing the highly inaccurate description of To Kill a Mockingbird.

“Yeah, we were roommates,” Dominic replied, surprised by the question but unquestioning of its origin. His description of Jarrod sealed the issue in Casey’s mind. Hard childhood, loneliness, isolation. Hadn’t his mother once told him that the easiest way for evil to control you, is to make you believe evil is the only one that would take you in? She had been the Princess of Evil. Jarrod was just a kid. If she could be saved by friendship, by family, Casey was sure that Jarrod was no different.

He was gone before Dominic could finish talking.

 

He changed as quickly as he could into his uniform, then ran through town, out into the wilds and on the chaotic and once dangerous path to Dai Shi’s temple. The ground was soft from rain that had fallen, making it easier to jump higher, and nigh fly along the path. Here and there where taking the more winding, practical path up felt too long he used the bat technique to jump higher, farther. He flipped and dodged, and ignoring all thoughts of doubt that might have surfaced, he fled toward the person that he had probably failed most in all his battles.

But as he grew close to the temple, Master Mao’s spirit appeared in front of him. He cautioned him back, warning him that even the Masters, even Master Mao himself had been unable to sway Jarrod. As if that were the question, as if Jarrod needed masters. No, he needed connections. Friends. Attachment. And if Casey, as his most hated enemy, could be an attachment? So be it.

But Mao was not done, throwing in his face the fact buried deepest in Casey’s soul. The guilt at the nature of happenstance, the fact that it was due to Casey stopping Jarrod’s bullying that any of this had happened. Had he allowed Jarrod to torment the other student, Jarrod would never have been banished, Dai Shi would never have been freed, and Jarrod would never have been possessed by so incredibly powerful an evil spirit. If Casey had stayed on the bench and chosen to not follow Master Mao, or simply not to choose, his friends would never have had to fight Dai Shi’s monsters. Most of the infrastructure of Ocean Bluff would have been safe. RJ would never have been captured and tortured. None of it would have happened.

“You know his heart was not pure,” Master Mao offered, almost as if to soothe the pain despite him standing in defiance of all Casey was trying to achieve. But Casey stood firm, even as Master Mao stated without embellishment or softening that Casey’s destruction was the most probable outcome of these events.

Walking through his specter was cold, unpleasant, rude, and probably not worth it. But as Master Mao’s final question echoed on the hills, _“Are you trying to save Jarrod, or redeem yourself?”_ he ran. Not from the question, but to the answer.

Because it was easy enough to forget among his friends, that his existence was impure much less his heart. His heart had been full of warmth and hope and joy for so long he had almost forgotten the demonic origins of the power that had kept him alive for so long among the Rangers. Turning to face Jarrod felt almost like facing himself in the mirror, doomed, but for the hope that came from others reaching out and caring.

It didn’t take long after that to reach Dai Shi’s temple. The Rinshi guards were easily brushed aside, folding like paper under his blows. He had no time for them, walking through them, in complete command of all of his powers.

The way to Dai Shi’s throne room was also clear. He doubted very much that Dai Shi expected him. But he wasn’t unexpected either.

Jarrod greeted him about as warmly as he expected, with a roar, words about his foolishness and generally attacking him. Words of friendship were, Casey knew, his best weapon. But that didn’t make the situation any less dire. Jarrod was strong, and Dai Shi was helping him. Casey could feel the evil in each blow, every hit Jarrod ceding a little more power to Dai Shi.

Likewise his plea for help against Dai Shi fell on less than listening ears. “Whose idea was this again?” he asked rhetorically, catching his breath and appreciating for a brief moment how grateful he was for the practice the monsters had given him in standing up after ribs were badly bruised. “Oh right, mine.” He put his morpher on, and geared up to fight some more. Tough love, he supposed some might call it.

Sheer idiocy, a sarcastic amalgamation of admonishing mentors chimed in from the back of his mind. He pretended to ignore them, and fought.

It didn’t take too terribly long for the fight to devolve from martial arts into grabbing each other and smashing the temple to bits as they threw each other around. Morphed smashing through stone walls still hurt, but was marginally more bearable than it would have been otherwise. His jungle chucks were all but useless, save for smashing more stuff around the place, but even that was something, so on they went.

They crashed into an armory, and with Casey’s ill luck Jarrod ended up by most of the weapons. Using his sabers he deflected the worst of it, but nearly being crushed by a holder full of weapons was a bit off putting. Through another wall, and dodging energy attacks and falling bits of temple was definitely a step up in the destructive process.

Casey was getting tired. So he tried his words again, which had the annoying effect of Jarrod upgrading to Rinsen. So Casey did the same, activating Master Mode. “I’m not leaving without you,” Casey yelled, frustrated.

“You’re not leaving period!” Jarrod called back, coming in for another attack.

They fought, more was destroyed. It was all beginning to feel a bit pointless when Casey finally got a solid hit in. Strong enough to remove the armor from Jarrod, and send him to the ground.

“Finish it!” Jarrod yelled, “Do it!”

But Casey let his morph drop. He turned his back, and dropped his morpher, waiting for the blow that never came. Jarrod fought back, screaming in pain as he expelled Dai Shi from himself.

Dai Shi took his revenge, draining the Rinsen from Jarrod and Camille, sending them to the floor in pain. So Casey stood, throwing himself in front of them, holding the greatest evil spirit to ever escape the Spirit World at bay with determination, a touch of magic, and his tiger spirit. “Go!” he called to Jarrod and Camille, “Go!”

They stood with his help, but as they tried to leave Casey felt powerful spirit energy tearing down his back, through his uniform, leaving deep marks. He screamed, throwing what he could of his power back at Dai Shi, knowing that this time, he had been careless. His arm burned as blood slid down his back, too much, too fast. He could feel vital organs that had been lacerated by the attack, and the dark magic inside him responded to the damage, exploding out of him, a portal forming beneath his feet. The last thing he saw before the darkness swallowed him were Jarrod and Camille’s horrified faces, even as they ran away.

 

Falling into the underworld was a lot less painful than Casey would’ve expected. Given how obviously traumatized Carter had been by the experience, Casey half expected his skin to peel away, his brain to melt or perhaps his powers to turn against him. Instead he found himself engulfed in fur, as a gentle tiger curled around him. The air around him was warm, but not unpleasantly so. It tingled along his skin, burning away his clothes but leaving him unharmed. If anything it felt like an improvement, the jacket that bore the marks of his failure, of RJ’s abandonment, the weight of months of everyone’s lives depending on him finally gone. The shoes he ran so far in, so fast, gone from his feet leaving only the possibility of walking. If he wished, he could use them as he pleased. Falling into the underworld, despite the deep lesions Dai Shi had scraped into his skin, felt like freedom.

So he let himself fall, the burn on his forearm still slightly distracting, but otherwise more relaxed than he’d been for years. The pain of rejection, that too slipped into memory. The closed off look on RJ’s face as he turned from Casey, and the way he had said barely a word to him since the trials. Lily and Theo’s celebrations, Domenic’s smile, Fran’s stuttering wisdom. All of it, wisps of smoke in the inferno he fell into. The feeling of pain, the feeling of loneliness, of being forgotten. Of being loved. All of it falling away, falling, falling…

Moments in an eternity passed before he felt himself land gently in a cradle of darkness. His eyes opened to find his tiger burning brightly around him, holding him safe against the flames that wished to eat at him. Smiling to himself, he lay there and luxuriated in the feeling of his own skin. The wounds that had bled so profusely were gone, burned away with the rest of his pain. He felt clean, purified. Ready to start again.

“Rise my son,” a large voice called. It was the voice of an old woman, but magnified so it filled the endless empty and dark space around him. “Rise and meet your destiny!”

Without thinking about it, Casey rolled to his feet, the tiger slipping back into him. As he walked away from the cocoon he formed clothing from the darkness around him, a dark mimicry of his training uniform, with an outer robe that flowed behind him. But there was no mark of shame sewn into the front, only a single hooked claw, so small it could barely be seen amidst the black gii. Striding out into the firelit room he found himself surrounded by demons, thousands of them. They screamed and cried, howled and laughed, making a noise fit to wake the spirit world.

“Shut up!” He called, and for the first time since the underworld was formed, none who were there made a sound. None could as his power seized their throats and closed them tightly. With a nod, he continued into the room, his robe trailing him as he walked up to Queen Bansheera, and kneeled.

“Mother,” he said quietly.

“We’ve been waiting,” she replied, voice like nails in Casey’s skull though still nothing hurt him. “So many years we have been waiting for your return. Now go forth my son, and put an end to the Power Rangers!”

In the split second after her command, it occurred to Casey that he probably should ask _which_ Rangers she wanted destroyed, or how many, or how she wanted him to go about it, or even just whether she wanted them mentally, physically, or emotionally destroyed, and if all of them wouldn’t it be easier to kill them?

But instead he bowed again. “As you wish.”


	22. Chapter 22

22.

If RJ had to use a single word to describe the day, he would reluctantly have to go with “bad.” Possibly “terrible” or even “disastrous.” He had known from the moment Casey chose to follow Theo and Lily’s examples, from the moment Casey had asked him for help with the final, even, that his path would take a difficult turn. He had known he would have to trust him to find his own way, and put his life back in his own hands.

He hadn’t expected to be watching the screens, pacing back and forth waiting desperately for a sign that Casey had managed to face Dai Shi alone and survive. That he had managed to save Jarrod. Lily, Theo and Domenic were strung tightly, arrows waiting to be loosed. Waiting for his word that they can help their friend. But it had been over an hour since Casey crashed into the enemy base and there was no sign that he was still alive. Nor, that he was dead. It was as if the fortress had simply swallowed him up.

Abruptly there was a blip in the camera, had RJ blinked he’d have missed it, but moments later the sight of Jarrod and Camille running past the camera, both spattered with blood, was his sign.

“Casey’s done his job, time for us to do ours,” RJ snapped out, loosing his arrows, even as he held a breath of hope that Casey might be right behind the Lion and Chameleon spirits. He waited a good minute after the other three had gone, but there was no sign.

So he ran, fast as he possibly could, trying to put the blood out of his mind. He couldn’t lie to his heart, but he could suppress it until this battle was done. Because there would be a battle, that was sure. Dai Shi was free, and as long as that was true no human would be safe. If his wolf spirit was howling as he ran, screaming out in pain and fear, he could hardly be blamed for that.

He reached Jarrod and Camille before the other three, despite leaving after them. Both were shaking, Jarrod staring at his blood-covered hands as if they didn’t belong to him. Camille was hugging herself, looking as if she wished to vanish into the surroundings but was holding for Jarrod’s sake.

“Where’s Casey?” RJ asked, keeping his voice as calm as he could.

Neither responded, and so he rounded on Camille, “Flit,” he shouted, “What happened to Casey?”

The fly forced itself up Camille’s throat quickly, but seemed even more nervous than usual as he flew around, sluggish and sad. “RJ,” he buzzed, sounding choked up. “Friend, I’m so sorry!”

“It’s okay Flit,” RJ said patiently, plucking him out of the air, “I just need to know. Where is he? We have to go in after him.”

“You can’t!” Flit cried, “He’s gone! Dai Shi killed him, and the underworld opened and swallowed him up!”

“What?”

“No!”

Theo and Lily’s cries came from behind RJ, even as he bowed his head and took a deep breath. “Now’s not the time,” he said over their protests and determination to go in anyway. “Dai Shi is free, we have other problems.”

As if on cue, every monster they had ever fought reanimated, and all any of them could do was fight. They left Dominic to defend the still shaken Jarrod and Camille, as the remaining three, and the six Masters worked to send all of them straight back to hell.

 

It was about the time that Dai Shi formed into a monster in his own right that RJ was seriously considering handing in the towel. He began to see what Rocky had meant when, years before, he warned him that eventually it stops being about the monsters, or the fight, or saving humans, or anything else that would make sense. It becomes about keeping your comrades alive, and if one of them falls everything begins to seem pointless.

They had sent Lily off with Jarrod and Camille an hour or so before, trying to get them out of the way, or perhaps to a mental place where they could help. It scarcely mattered. She had only been gone half an hour, but he suspected from her renewed fury they had told her more of Casey’s demise. She had always been particularly protective of him, and RJ had no doubt she felt she had failed him. Failed to protect her little brother, her student, leader and comrade. Theo had covered for her sloppier moves so far, but it was quickly becoming untenable. RJ knew he was also guilty of being too enthusiastic, and careless in this battle. He had bruises to show for it. He had been a master longer than them though, and his mistakes were less costly to others.

The Masters and their Spirit Rangers were all that had kept them from falling apart completely thus far. They didn’t know where Casey was, and as such Master Finn was still fighting properly. The other five would’ve kept it together well enough, but RJ knew his father had accepted Casey both as student, and potential son in law. He would grieve deeply for his loss.

As RJ grieved. Push past it though he did, he found guilt at his recent actions kept creeping back, gnawing at his concentration. Should haves, could haves, shouldn’t haves. They were impossible to ignore. _Should have told him I love him, should have held him close, shouldn’t have switched away from his shift, should have baked that pizza with him. Should have agreed to train some more, even though it wouldn’t have helped him. Shouldn’t have let him go. Shouldn’t have rushed his training. Should have kissed him, told him to stay safe. Told him he was believed in. Told him he wasn’t alone. Told him it was okay to not be a Master. Told him how many times he himself had failed tests because he was following his dad’s instruction. Should have…_

“RJ, look out!” Lily’s scream snapped him out of it as Stingerella nearly managed to poison him. He managed to dodge and get in a finishing blow. But it gave so little satisfaction as still others managed to surround. But on they fought. They could figure out why later.

 

When it came time to fight Dai Shi, they stopped. The Monsters were dead, with only one left it was hard to say where to begin. Without Casey they couldn’t form their Megazord, and even if they did RJ seriously doubted it would do much good. Dai Shi had consumed thousands of souls in his time, mashing together what animals they had left wouldn’t save the world. If anything it would probably make everything worse if Dai Shi managed to destroy their spirits.

“We have to find a higher power,” Theo said suddenly, settling into a meditative stance. “Something beyond our animal forms.”

Lily mimicked his stance, combining their power in a joint meditation. But something was wrong. All the Masters could sense it.

“We need Casey,” Lily said after a moment, “it’s uneven with us. We can’t control it.”

“You’re my students,” RJ said with a wispy echo of the past. “There’s nothing you can’t do.”

It earned him two wan smiles, as they settled back into concentration. RJ led the defensive offense, trying to buy them time by blocking fireballs and distracting the many headed dragon in any small way they could.

Then Jarrod returned to turn the tide. The original three candidates to be Rangers in one place. Rather than joining Lily and Theo, however, Jarrod took the high ground and rampaged in the monster’s stomach.

RJ couldn’t fault the logic there. It seemed to work as well, the fireballs stopped and several of the necks were snapped. But the fight still seemed lost, even as Lily and Theo engaged the spirits on the metaphysical plain, it was not enough.

They threw their spirits at it, their hearts, what little hope any of them had left. When suddenly, the sky cracked open, turning bright red, clouds appearing from nowhere as a single, black clad form fell from the crack in the sky, standing one foot above the monster and joining the battle on both plains.

The dragon was forced back, back and away from the Masters, from Jarrod with his injuries and still bloodstained hands, and from Lily and Theo, shrinking, twisting, until with another loud _crack,_ the world returned to normal, the dark form vanishing and a ball that looked like dragon necks twisted around each other falling at RJ’s feet with a _thunk._

“Casey?” Lily murmured aloud, her eyes opening, searching their surroundings. “Casey!?”

“He’s gone,” Master Finn said, walking over carefully. “He’s gone.”

RJ turned away from the Masters, his students, his friend, everyone. Without a word he walked away from the battle, holding the ball of raging evil tightly in his fist. A gift from the departed, he decided. Casey had saved their lives one last time. The least he could do was keep the sealed spirits away from any who could undo what had been done.

Then, and only then, would he let himself grieve.

 

They excavated the remains of the temple, looking for any sign of Casey’s body. There was none. Jarrod and Camille showed them the crack in the ground where Casey had fallen, and if he closed his eyes RJ could feel the echoes of that familiar power, cold but oddly warm in Casey’s hands. He had never truly considered it an evil force for all of Casey’s negative reactions to his origins. But feeling it here, in a rift over the underworld, RJ could understand a little why he would fear such a power.

In the wake of their victory everyone left. Lily and Theo off to teach at the academy, Fran and Dominic to see the world. RJ found himself at an odd peace with being alone again. He didn’t pretend the year and a half hadn’t happened, nor did he dwell on it. At night the guilt could eat him alive if it wished, the knowledge that Casey had died without them having several conversations they should have would always haunt him.

But it wasn’t for nothing he was a Pai Zhua Master. Living in the past could never be constructive, and he was not afraid to live with the knowledge of his own mistakes. His heart hurt, but he was no less a master, or Ranger, for the pain. So he handed the Pizzaria over to his dad and Flit, and made his way to Panorama City. He had a few questions to ask before he accepted the situation was as it seemed. Several, rather important conversations he had had with Casey had been whispering around his mind, about Casey’s origins, and what he was destined to become.

Bulk opened the door slowly, his face dropping at the sight of RJ. Clearly he already knew of Casey’s demise, but welcomed him in nonetheless.

“Water?” he asked, voice subdued.

“Please,” RJ replied, sitting on the same couch he had last time.

“What brings you here, Mr. James?” Bulk asked, handing over the water with some reluctance.

RJ sat forward, “I need to find the Titanium Ranger, and was wondering if you knew anyone I could talk to about that?”

Bulk thought a moment, “Why do you need him?”

“Well, Flit told me Casey fell into the underworld,” RJ said, holding Bulk’s gaze carefully. “If what Casey told me about himself is true, that wouldn’t destroy him. That would have saved him.”

“Mr. James,” Bulk said, hesitating and glancing around the room, uncertain.

“RJ,” RJ corrected gently. “My name is RJ.”

“I have to stay here and watch Jayden,” Bulk said after a long moment. He pulled out a pad of paper, scribbling down an address in Reefside. “But the people who live here might be able to help you.”

 

Swoop leant RJ his spirit, as it was a good eight hour drive up to Reefside from Panorama city. Flying it took an hour. Falling from the bat zord, he flipped and landed kneeling outside an unassuming looking house. It appeared to be a one story house, with a rustic cabin aesthetic despite the clearly modern structure.

Before he could even reach the door, two men came out the front door, both familiar. The lion spirit that had spent the entire day with Casey, and the falcon spirit that Casey had met with in the park. Jason and Tommy, if RJ remembered correctly.

Jason walked up to him with a bright grin. “Tommy, it’s RJ!” he called back to the other, spiky haired man who was standing on their porch looking bemused.

RJ’s throat closed as Jason batted aside his proffered hand, enveloping him in a bear hug. “Man, didn’t think you’d reach out.” He pulled back, but kept an arm over RJ’s shoulders, pulling him into the house. “Come on in, we have tea, coffee, juice, water.”

RJ called on all the inner zen he’d learned to channel at the team, not quite able to summon a goofy grin, but kept his muscles from tensing at the familiar touch from a man he’d not precisely met before. Picking up what was left of Theo after their skirmish didn’t really count, after all. Tommy gave him a sympathetic look as he was physically dragged by and into the house, which put him somewhat at ease. Apparently this was simply Jason’s way.

He was led through a house that was warm, wood theme everywhere with reds and blacks and greens sprinkled through the decorations. White curtains on the window surprised him a little, but the rest of the décor was subtle and seemed to reflect _colors_ , Ranger colors.

He was deposited at a table and waved into the wooden chair. Despite having asked what he wanted, Jason went ahead and cooked up hot chocolate, a fact that made RJ’s throat close momentarily, the memory of Casey half-hugging him to give him a cup of cocoa flashing through his mind. It had been the last time he’d had hot chocolate before Casey fell.

Joining him at the table, Tommy offered another wry smile. “What brings you here, RJ?” he asked calmly.

“I need to find the Titanium Ranger,” RJ said, leaning forward. There was a clank of surprise as Jason dropped a spoon into the hot chocolate, and Tommy’s eyebrows slowly rose. “Farkas Bulkmier said you might be able to help me.”

“Bulk sent you?” Tommy asked, sitting back in his chair. “Why do you need to find Ryan?”

“To get Casey back,” RJ replied simply.

The silence in the kitchen was thick, Tommy and Jason exchanging significant looks, Tommy’s seriousness slowly morphing into a grin. “You think he’s alive?”

“If he was telling me the truth when he said he was the weapon of demons,” RJ said, trying not to show how out of his depth he was. “He fell into an underworld, and I felt the rift left by it. The nature of the power was the same as the magic Casey had. Falling into a pit of his own magic wouldn’t have killed him.”

Tommy let out a long breath, grimness returning to his face. “No, it wouldn’t.” He glanced at Jason significantly. “Might want to alert everyone, no morphing for the foreseeable future.”

Jason nodded, tapping a wristwatch like bracelet on his arm, and rattling off information to people whose names RJ had heard, but didn’t know more than Casey had told him. Wes, who had only one team member left. Adam he knew. Katharine, a Cole, Carter, Leo, Karone, Andros, Cassie, Mack, Udonna, TJ, Dustin, the list went on. To each one he said, “Don’t morph for a while, Bansheera’s weapon might be online.”

Only a few questioned further. Clearly he was missing something. “You might want to tell your team as well,” Tommy broke into his thoughts gently.

“Why?” he asked.

“Casey didn’t tell you?” Tommy asked, folding his arms. “He’s a gridbomb. The demon Queen Bansheera created him to destroy the Morphing Grid. If someone was morphed when he pulled the plug on the grid, they might be destroyed.”

RJ shook his head, “Casey would never do that.”

“Don’t rule out mind control,” Jason called from by the stove, having finished his rapid-fire calls. He brought over cups of slightly scalded cocoa. “Bansheera wasn’t a very complicated villain, but she had a lot of raw power at her disposal. Making Casey was a side project of hers, just for fun. She didn’t think she’d need him, demons just have a thing with genetic readjustment. Well, that dimension’s demons anyway.”

“All the more reason to retrieve Casey,” RJ replied, returning to his original goal.

Jason nodded thoughtfully. “We can get you in touch with Ryan,” he conceded. “But there’s no guarantee he’ll help.”

“Why not?” RJ asked, frowning. “He’s a Ranger isn’t he?”

“The strongest to date,” Tommy said with a crooked smile. “But that came at a cost. He was kidnapped by demons as a child, and was raised by them. He then had to spend an additional few years finding his partner, Carter, in the underworld.”

It rang a bell, Casey had mentioned something of the sort in his list of Ranger losses. “He’s one of the two Casey was spliced from, then?” RJ asked lightly.

“That being the crux of the matter,” Jason agreed. “When we found Casey as a baby he advocated killing him immediately. He hasn’t forgiven us for not allowing him to make that call, given that he and Carter were used against their will in biological experiments.”

“I see.” RJ absorbed the information slowly, but carefully separated it into requisite parts in his mind. Ryan was probably the only one with any hope of entering the underworld without causing a proper breach. Equally, if he advocated for destroying Casey, RJ would quickly find himself at odds with him. “Advice?” he asked, glancing between the two older men.

They communicated silently through looks, then Tommy nodded. “Carter Grayson,” he said firmly. “The Red Lightspeed Rescue Ranger, he’s Ryan’s partner, and you should be able to convince him, should you make your case well enough. His sister, Dana, might also be willing to lend a hand.”

Nodding, RJ stood. “Thank you,” he said, his hand knocking against his untouched cup of cocoa. “What’s the address?”

Jason laughed. “Wasting no time. From what Casey told me of you I’d thought you were the level headed one on the team.”

RJ snorted smiled crookedly. “I have to make this right.”

“What did you do wrong?” Jason asked lightly, but his eyes were sharp, searing though RJ as if trying to read his mind.

RJ sighed, sitting down again. “You’re both aware he took his master’s test.”

Tommy nodded, “Rocky mentioned it.”

“He failed.” RJ said bluntly. “He was never going to succeed in the straightforward setting of a school. His training was completely abnormal, and so his true master’s test was much more difficult.”

“Going to the temple was his test?” Jason guessed, processing the information. “And you could have put a stop to it, but didn’t because he wanted to be a master.”

RJ shook his head. “We needed him to be one,” he admitted. “There was no way we could defeat Dai Shi if they hadn’t achieved mastery.”

“So you gambled on him, and it didn’t work out.” Tommy said slowly, sighing. “That’s rough.”

“Have you considered that you might not be able to save him?” Jason asked gently. His dark brown eyes met RJ’s, and the wolf master felt a sudden jolt of anger at the calmness of these two. They had had years to mourn for Casey, losing him again was a loss, but less of one than for RJ, for whom the concept was fresher. Known as a possibility, but not one he accepted, even now.

“Would you?” he asked, picking up the cocoa and drinking it as if accepting a challenge. “What’s the address?”


	23. Chapter 23

23.

Arriving in Mariner Bay was much less daunting than the cabin had been. It was a city much as any other. Scars of the Rangers’ battles of the past were littered through the city, broken buildings no one had been able to afford to fix, and the remains of standing stones that had formed a barrier around the gate to hell. Only the very base of the stones had been unmovable, the rest had gone with the hell dimension. But as RJ walked through the city he could see all the signs of a rift still existing, spots of negative energy and greater violence. The Lightspeed Rangers had done their best, he had no doubt, but the clean up on the city was almost sloppy.

He made his way to a restaurant Jason had recommended he meet up with Carter at. They had also taken the liberty of calling Carter themselves rather than leaving RJ to rely solely on his Ranger status to keep Carter on the phone.

So he found himself in a skyscraper, in a fortieth story restaurant that was more of a café. A sprawling café, where many students were working on their laptops and laughing with friends. He chose a table in the corner, ordered a tea and waited.

It took about half an hour, but a man in a red shirt, floppy hair and unmistakably having the same eye shape as Casey, rolled over in a wheelchair. “You’d be RJ, then?” he asked without preamble, leaning forward in his chair to grasp RJ’s hand firmly. His legs moved as he did so, RJ noted, so he wasn’t paralyzed. Just, unable to walk.

“Carter, I assume?” RJ returned, gesturing for the other man to join him, and pushing the other chair out of the way.

“Thanks.” Carter said, grinning crookedly, another familiar sight that made RJ’s heart twist in his chest. “I’m afraid I rely on the grid for day to day energy,” he explained as he wheeled over to the table. “With that option removed, I find it easier to use this.” He patted his chair, before smiling at RJ again. “Jason said you had an idea of how to fix the grid?”

RJ blinked. That was a spin he hadn’t expected. “In a sense,” he agreed after a moment. “I need to get to the underworld.”

“You want to fight through the demons?” Carter asked incredulously. “To get the grid online.”

“To get Casey back,” RJ corrected, grabbing Carter’s hand before he could move to roll away. “He’s the problem, and the solution. If the demons don’t have him, the grid is safe.”

Carter’s eyes searched his, steely as befits a firefighter and ranger. After a moment he relaxed back in his chair, waving a waiter over and ordering a coffee.

“You want Casey back,” he said once the waiter was gone. “Because he’s your teammate?”

“Because I love him.” RJ said with far more confidence than he felt.

Carter’s eyebrows rose, and he blinked thoughtfully a few times. “That’s, unexpected.” He admitted.

“Why?” RJ asked, “He’s an amazing individual. Kind, selfless, brave, and always willing to learn.” He closed his eyes and pictured him, laughing as they all played with basketballs, concentrating as he struggled to master a kata, and the determination he’d had even when he was fading away. “His strength and determination to do what is right alone would turn most heads,” RJ said, tone teasing but serious. “Did you know him as a kid?”

“No,” Carter said, clearly absorbing the news of what the demon baby had turned into slowly. “I’m afraid we only met once, and it was before I had completely healed from my time in the underworld. He was cute, and by all reports kind and affable. But we only met the once before he was declared dead, and frankly, neither Ryan nor I were entirely sad about it.”

RJ’s eyes narrowed, and Carter held up a hand, shushing him. “It sounds harsh, but if Dai Shi had left behind a powerful yet innocent being, one there was no way you could kill but that was still clearly designed to grow up to be something far less harmless, wouldn’t you always be looking over your shoulder, waiting for it to kill you?”

Loathe though he was to concede the point, RJ nodded slowly. He felt that way about the ball of evil that had landed at his feet. It was better sealing than a box, but still could be undone. Dai Shi could rise once more. Sealing him away was a feat, and a powerful one. But the question of what if would always haunt Pai Zhua. Taking a breath, he softened his expression. “Be that as it may, he’s part of my team. I won’t leave him down there.”

“And if he’s been brainwashed? Turned into Bansheera’s weapon?” Carter asked. “Could you destroy him if it comes down to it?”

RJ held the gaze. “I know his fighting better than anyone, if anyone can defeat him it’s me.”

“Not the question,” Carter said, pulling his hand back at last, folding his arms and frowning at RJ, almost looking disappointed.

RJ sighed, pulling back from the table. “You of all people should understand,” he said almost bitterly. “You fell into the underworld, and you were dragged back out again by a teammate unwilling to let it go. This is no different.”

“It is because Casey is a dangerous weapon.” Carter corrected. “You could be bringing more danger upon us by bringing him out.”

“If he wanted us dead, we would be dead.” RJ countered. “The morphing grid could be used to drain us all of life. We’re still here.”

Carter shook his head, leaning back in his chair. His eyes were sad, and while it was disappointing RJ knew what he would say before he said it. “It’s too dangerous. I’m sorry. And even if I thought it was possible, I wouldn’t ask Ryan to go back there.” He looked away, hands on the wheels of his chair. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

RJ pushed his chair back, forcing a smile. “I’ll find another way,” he said. “Thank you for your time.”

 

Finding another way proved challenging, a fact he found himself explaining to Rocky three weeks later. Somehow, though there was no team to check up on, he continued to call.

“The main barrier to getting in to find him is magic,” he was explaining, pacing back and forth across the loft as he did so. “I’ve called up anyone I know who has supernatural abilities and they’re either too weak to do it, or unwilling to engage with that level of dark energy.”

For a moment he’d thought Rocky had hung up for some reason, then he heard muffled voices, as if he had put his hand over the receiver. After what sounded like a lively back and forth, Rocky said, “I might be able to help you, cous,” he said. “Adam was on a mixed team a few years ago, knows a guy named Xander who might know a thing or two.”

“Where can I find him?” RJ asked.

“Briarwood,” Rocky replied. “His team operated out of a music shop in Briarwood.”

 

Xander was an odd duck. He was a tall and wiry fellow, with a face breaking smile and big eyes that seemed to see through his soul.

When RJ met him he was wearing an obnoxious purple uniform, a manager pin, and was helping what looked like a goblin find a copy of Dark Side of the Moon. Which was hardly the strangest thing RJ had seen during his life, but definitely struck him as not at all the norm either.

Having finished locating the CD, Xander turned his attention to RJ, holding out a hand and saying with a toothy grin, “Hi, I’m Xander, how can I help you today mate?”

RJ took his hand, shaking it firmly. “RJ.”

Xander’s face barely moved, but still reflected a wash of understanding. “Right, well, what you need is back here,” he said leading him through to a staff office, closing the door and making sure the blinds were closed as well before turning to him again. “Right, well, underworld!” He clapped his hands together, “Adam said you need to retrieve a ranger?”

RJ nodded. “I need help to open a gate to the underworld our Red fell into. It’s not the same underworld you fought against, so I don’t know-“

“Say no more!” Xander said, picking up a cell phone and flipping it in his hand. “We’ll never know until we try, right?”

“… Right.” RJ mustered up a smile.

“Well then, take me to the breach,” Xander said, shrugging off his uniform shirt and changing into a green jumper and jeans.

Eyebrows raised, RJ led him outside and summoned the bat zord, flying them back to Ocean’s Bluff as quickly as he could.

He couldn’t help but smile as they flew, Xander’s enthusiastic response to the bat zord and his ability to summon it seemingly from nowhere was warm and genuine.

“But like, where does it come _from?_ ” Xander asked as they flew, stumbling around the control area and examining the walls with a strange cell-phone device. “This thing is pure energy, but it registers as human.”

“It’s an animal spirit,” RJ explained, keeping his eyes ahead of him though he didn’t really need to. “Everyone has one.”

“Really?” Xander looked over at him with a bright grin. “What’s mine then?”

RJ closed his eyes, focusing on Xander for a moment. Energetic but grounded, charging head first without hesitation or knowledge of what he was getting into. “Spirit of the bull, I think. Maybe the ram. Honestly sensing others spirits was never my forte.”

“What is your forte then?” Xander asked, coming to stand beside him and stare through the viewer as well. “You’re a lot more serious than I’d heard through the grapevine, though I suppose losing a teammate will do that to you.”

“I make pizza,” RJ said, shoulders slumping, relaxing from his ‘I’m concentrating don’t talk to me’ pose, as it was clearly doing no good. “Honestly, I just want to live a quiet life, and make pizza.”

“Then why go to all this trouble?” Xander asked, folding his arms. “I’m sure the others would’ve sent someone down eventually. The no morphing rule can’t hold forever, monsters always come back after all. Sooner or later someone’ll have to do something.”

RJ gave him a black look, and was surprised when it made Xander’s grin grow. “I see how it is,” Xander said, letting his arms fall to his sides. “Right then. I might need to call in some help. I bet I can get the rift to open, but I wouldn’t recommend going into a hell dimension alone.”

RJ tilted his head skeptically, “You haven’t seen the rift yet,” he pointed out, “it may be incompatible with your powers.”

Xander chuckled and cracked his knuckles. “I’ve yet to find a problem my team can’t crack, mate,” he said certainly. “Get me there and we can get you in.”

 

It ended up being a little more complicated than all that. Arriving at the remains of the temple took relatively little time. But once in finding the exact spot where Casey fell was a bit trickier. The temple had continued to destabilize, making even their scouting perilous. Fortunately, Xander’s magic seemed to be mostly involved with plants, and he called upon the vines and trees in the area to stabilize the place. By the time he was done, however, there was precious little light left to work with, so they retreated to Jungle Karma Pizza for the night.

Flit and RJ’s dad were both surprised to see him, but overall pleased. They welcomed Xander with open arms and hearts, allowing RJ to retreat to his room in the loft. He came out when everyone had gone to bed, running through a few katas and practicing solo forms he’d had relatively little need for when the team was there.

He had a better idea of Xander’s power set after he stabilized the temple, and it was impressive. Being able to control plants, and the time in which they grew, wasn’t a power to sneeze at. That sort of power could level cities in the wrong hands. RJ wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to deal with an entire team of people who had control over elements, time, and apparently the sun and moon. He had asked Xander if they all had powers like his, and he had launched into a lengthy explanation of his team and their dynamics. Their red in control of fire, and apparently a dragon. Their blue and pink controlling air and water. Apparently their yellow was a knight, and also could control lightning, and his master could harness the power of the sun. It was a set of forces that RJ wasn’t entirely sure what he would do with, or how to respect their power without being overwhelmed. But then, he thought as he carefully controlled his breathing, centering himself, Casey had always been somewhat like that as well. Too big of forces for RJ to even begin to explain or work with. But good, so painfully earnestly trying to be good and make the world a place he could live.

“Are you sure about this, RJ?”

His dad’s voice came from deep in the shadows, and with a final deep breath RJ relaxed from his stretching. “What else can I do, dad?” he asked, not bothering to keep the rawness out of his voice.

“Let him go,” Finn said, not moving from the shadows. “Grieve and move on.”

RJ shook his head incrementally. “He wouldn’t give up on us,” he said, grateful he’d been meditating as he’d stretched. He was calm enough to not bite his dad’s head off. “Besides,” he said turning to face his father, “Someone will have to deal with the greater problem he presents eventually. At least I’m trying to save him.”

Finn stepped forward, searching RJ’s eyes with his own. He lay a warm hand on RJ’s shoulder, only the slightest hurt flickering over his face as RJ flinched at his touch. “Be sure,” he said simply. “Be sure your motive is pure.”

“I love him, dad,” RJ said, stepping back a pace, forcing Finn’s hand from his shoulder. “What’s purer than that?”

Unable to face his father’s sorrow, disappointment or possibly even recrimination, RJ walked away. He lay in his bed, but with the emptiness of the loft, the lack of cat spirits wandering its halls, he found he couldn’t sleep.

 

The next day found him and Xander at the temple once again. This time Xander ran his cell phone wand over the ground, testing the rift and examining the energy. “I think I need Chip and Udonna,” he called over to RJ, who was meditating and keeping watch. “They know more about this than I do.”

RJ opened his eyes, and nodded. “Do you need the bat zord?” he asked.

“No, they should be able to ride brooms,” Xander said, flipping his wand open and calling his team.

Brooms ended up being somewhat more like flying motorbikes, if such a thing could exist. The team arrived in fragments, first Madison and Vida, sisters apparently. Then Chip, an excitable redhead who hugged Xander enthusiastically before launching into tales of his adventures since they had last met. Xander listened with a fond smile, even as all three helped set up a small pedestal with a metal bowl on it.

Soon after three more arrived, a young man and his parents. Nick, Udonna and Leanbow, apparently. Unusual names, RJ noted as he shook their hands. Not quite of this world. But it was somewhat unsurprising, as he could see Nick’s animal spirit was a _dragon_ of all things, and both Udonna and Leanbow radiated _power_ like nothing RJ had encountered before.

Solaris Knight was the last to stroll in, Chip immediately kneeling for his “master,” and the Knight, Daggeron as he learned later, laughed and pulled him to his feet and into a hug. This was bizarre enough, but trailing behind Daggeron was a giant cat-creature, humanoid but clearly not of Earth.

He did his best not to react, and smiling led them over to where Xander, Chip, Madison and Vida had set up a complicated spell circle with the pedestal and bowl at the top point.

“Well done,” Udonna said to them after examining their work. “This should work to seal in any dark energies trying to get out. But how did you intend to open the rift without someone from that dimension?”

Xander scratched the back of his neck. “Yeah, well, we figured we’d get there when we got there.”

Udonna gave him a reproving look. “Chip, did you bring the Xenotome with you?”

“Of course!” Chip said, pulling a gigantic book from his bag. “Xander said we’d probably need some serious firepower for this one.”

“Indeed,” Udonna said with a warm smile at him. “Well, no time to waste.” With flourish she opened the book, the pages turning to a specific page that she examined for a moment, her expression turning concerned. Closing the book, she turned to RJ. “I’m afraid there’s a bit of snag,” she said, sitting next to him gracefully. “According to the Xenotome, we’ll need DNA of a demon from that dimension.”

RJ hesitated, he still had Casey’s old things, but it wasn’t as if he’d had a brush with hair bits in it. Most of the items around the loft would be contaminated by other occupants, and before they’d left Dominic, Theo and Lily had done their best to clean the place, and that included taking down and washing the hammocks. “I could look,” he said doubtfully.

“Is there no one else from that dimension? No one attuned to it?” Udonna asked urgently. “It wouldn’t have to be Casey, you see, just someone who could narrow our search.”

“Ryan, the Titanium Ranger,” RJ said, trying not to grimace. “I asked his teammate to put in a word, but he assured me Ryan would rather see Casey dead than have a hand rescuing him.”

Udonna threw a significant look toward her husband, and both he and Daggeron wandered toward the exit, followed closely by their cat person.

“We’ll see what we can do,” Udonna said firmly, putting a hand on his knee.

RJ met her steady gaze and wondered just how pathetic he must look for all of the mystics to be both giving him space, and being so gentle. It was enough to make a somewhat genuine smile to twitch its way onto his lips. “Thank you,” he said, heartfelt. “Thank you all for helping me.”

“We’re Rangers, mate,” Xander called over from where he was adding protective details to the walls. “We help each other out.”

“Indeed,” Udonna said, standing again gracefully. “And if you’d like to be of use, you could explain to us how your power functions. It wouldn’t do to have unpleasant surprises should our powers turn out to be incompatable.”

 

Leanbow and Daggeron returned five hours later with a thoroughly annoyed looking man. During that time they had managed to coat what walls were left surrounding the rift with defenses enough to keep Dai Shi, all of the overlords and the phantom beast generals sealed without hope of escape. RJ had also had time to demonstrate the rudiments of Pai Zhua, enough that Udonna was reassured that he wouldn’t interfere with their power in the slightest, given that magic came from courage and belief working on external factors, rather than a familiarity with oneself.

Despite all of this, Ryan zeroed in on RJ the moment he stepped into the room. “What are you hoping to accomplish with all of this?” he asked, gesturing around the room.

RJ dug deep, flashing a bright grin and grabbing his hand. “You must be Ryan! I didn’t expect you to come.”

Ryan flinched back from his touch, glaring. “Answer my question.”

“I’d think that obvious,” RJ said, using the tone he always had when Theo was being particularly stubborn, “I’m trying to find my Red Ranger.” He furrowed his brows and put his hands up to the side, fingers twitching slightly. “Why? Why did you come?”

Ryan’s glare deepened, and he gestured at Daggeron and Leanbow. “They’re persuasive.”

RJ’s eyebrows rose in amusement. “How’d they manage that then? Everyone I’ve talked to says you’re the strongest of us all.”

“One, that would be Tommy Oliver,” Ryan corrected, his expression lightening for a moment, “and two, they have a _djinni._ Have you ever been threatened with a giant djinni cat? Carter all but chased me out with a broom.”

RJ laughed. Long and hard and louder than necessary, but as a release of pent of tension he decided there were far worse things. Catching his breath, tears in his eyes, he grinned at the cat-person. “Thank you,” he said simply.

The cat-person scratched behind its ear and started babbling in almost-humble-but-still-bragging monologue, and RJ tuned it out even as Daggeron moved to hush the strange creature.

RJ turned his attention back to Ryan. “Look, man,” he said cautiously, “either way Casey’ll have to be dealt with, and you know you’re the only one who can do that. Why not try and save him? If we fail you can destroy him, and never have to worry about it again. But if we succeed, that’s one more Ranger keeping the world safe.”

Ryan half smiled, his strict features softening enough to make him look far younger. “You know that’s almost a convincing argument.”

RJ sighed slightly, but Ryan continued. “But cat djinns aside, I’m here because the Mystics agreed to save Carter. He relies on the Grid to stay alive, day to day. Leanbow claims they have a cure.”

As if summoned, Udonna stepped over to them with the Xenotome, showing them a page with a healing potion on it. It looked like it wasn’t much good against death, and possibly a bit iffy against being comatose. But that was about the worst of it. Otherwise it seemed comprehensive enough to cover any ill.

The ingredients, however, looked like a mess and a half to find. Three dragon scales, moonwart gathered on the summer solstice, the breath of a volcano. The list went on. “Do you have all of this stuff?” RJ asked uneasily.

“No,” Udonna replied, closing the book, “But we do have several flasks of the potion. Chip brewed it a few moons ago, as part of his mastery exams.”

RJ looked over at Chip curiously. “Did he pass?”

Udonna laughed, “No. He did well on the practical, but at the end of the day his heart will always be with fighting and knighthood. He’s an extremely competent sorcerer, and will doubtless be a master of the arts someday. But he does like to rush in before he’s ready.”

RJ smiled, fond memories rising in his mind. “Students do that sometimes,” he said, thinking of all the times his Rangers had rushed in and gotten in way over their heads. Usually to his detriment. And yet, they had always managed to walk it back from the brink of utter defeat.

And where were they but there now? RJ let out a breath of laughter, and for the first time since Casey fell, felt a broad grin break over his face. “They always manage to succeed in the end.”

“Indeed,” Udonna said, her sharp eyes carefully taking in the change that had come over RJ. He could see a hint of approval, though what precisely she had seen he wasn’t sure. She looked like she was about to say more, but Nick interrupted them by walking over with a stoppered bottle.

Inside the clear glass RJ could see a swirling liquid, it was an ugly grey color but within the grey there were fiery red shards that glinted even without light. It didn’t look like something humans could digest, but Nick’s expression left RJ with no doubt that it was, indeed, the cure the book had shown.

Udonna smiled fondly at her son, taking the bottle and holding it carefully in both her hands she turned to Ryan. “Leanbow will take you back to your beloved,” she said gently. “We leave it up to you from there if you truly wish to join our quest.”

Ryan looked slightly unsure what to do with her antiquated phrasing. But he gingerly took the bottle from her, eyeing it dubiously. Then he took a pocketknife from his back pocket, and snipped off a lock of his hair, handing it to Udonna before heading back to where Leanbow stood waiting. RJ watched him go with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it was informative to have met Ryan. He could see now the damage Carter had alluded to. He was strong, so strong that he couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by the effort of carrying everything, and not realizing he could at any time put some of it down. Equally he seemed unmoving in his hatred of Casey’s existence, and part of RJ hoped he would go back to Carter, give him the potion and decide to stay, problems of the Grid be damned.

But having met Carter, he had little hope of that actually happening. Even if Ryan ended up being less than honorable, his brief meeting with Carter had left no doubt in his mind that Carter was. He would ask Ryan to help them, even if Udonna wished for him to make the choice on his own.

But, aware that there was little he could do about it beyond waiting for the portal to be complete, RJ settled back into meditation. It came more easily in light of their brief exchange. Knowing they could, in fact, open the portal was an excellent step forward. He was still somewhat uncertain about working with other Rangers, their inherent interest in the situation was to a large degree at odds with his own. But the Mystics had been nothing but kind, and as he meditated he got a sense of their animal spirits, though none of them were familiar. Creatures of another world, he supposed, magical beings he couldn’t be familiar with. They burned with a power brighter than any he’d seen before. Brighter even than the snake that had been almost visible around Ryan’s body.

As he meditated, RJ felt a familiar presence draw near. He had only a moment to register it as Dominic before the man burst into the cave, followed by a harried looking Fran and an equally stressed young woman who was wearing a white robe with a purple sash, blonde hair impressively flowing around her wide eyed face.

Without bothering to greet the Mystics Dominic narrowed in on RJ, striding over and plopping down next to him, face deeply lined. Whether the lines were from anger, fear or general frustration at being dragged away from his travels RJ couldn’t quite tell.

“So what’s your plan then?” Dominic demanded without prelude. “Going to go off on your own without telling the team, huh?”

RJ stared at him, blinking a few times owlishly. After a moment he said, “Hi Dom.”

The lines in Dominic’s forehead deepened. “RJ, tell me you were going to call us before you went to retrieve _our_ leader.”

RJ glanced away. “This is my responsibility, Dom,” he said, knowing it wouldn’t cut it. “Who told you?”

“Your dad of course,” Dominic said, leaning over and gently slapping RJ’s face a few times to turn his head so he was facing Dominic again. The slaps didn’t hurt, but facing Dominic directly felt strangely painful. His friend’s eyes, always steely but usually hidden by the softness of his face, held no give. Angry, RJ decided. Dominic was angry.

“Are Theo and Lily coming?” RJ asked, softening both tone and expression to a familiar mask. The gentle master, able to face anything for his students.

“They’re on standby,” Dominic replied, sitting back again, though continuing to glare daggers at RJ. “As Theo put it, ‘If he wouldn’t listen to Casey, why would he listen to us?’”

RJ closed his eyes, shying away from the truth in those words. A gentle hand on his shoulder, the one far from where Dominic sat, made them fly open again, only to find Fran had wandered over and was crouched by him. Her gentle gaze was almost worse than Dom’s glare, especially combined with the gentleness of her hand on his shoulder.

And indeed, the first words she said were, “I thought I told you to ask for help.” Her voice broke ever so slightly. “Casey wouldn’t want you to go through this alone.”

RJ let out a laughing breath. “Well, Casey,” he said, drawing out the name as he stood up, “doesn’t get a say. Falling into hell dimensions means you don’t get a vote.” He moved to walk over to the Mystic Rangers, only to be stopped cold by Dominic.

“Don’t joke about this, RJ,” he said, jumping to his feet as well. “We can’t lose you too.”

RJ didn’t look back, but tried to relax his tense shoulders, struggled to find the persona that had gotten him through all the battles. But the lightness of heart he’d managed to keep, even at the worst of times wasn’t at his beck and call as it had been. “I have to do this, Dom,” he said quietly. “I sent him in there, and I kept you back.”

“You didn’t send him anywhere,” Dominic replied sharply. “He decided to do that on his own. Don’t start taking credit for his actions.”

“We needed him to be a master,” RJ said, as if he hadn’t heard. “So we set him up to take a test that would actually test him where basic sparring with his master never could have.”

Dominic’s breath caught in his throat audibly. He coughed in surprise. “ _That’s_ why you held us back?”

RJ inclined his head slightly. Behind him Dominic let out a long breath, even as Fran gasped. “No,” she said, “just so he’d be a master?” Her words stuttered out, confusion and horror mingling.

RJ lifted the snakelike ball of evil Dai Shi had become from around his neck, pulling the necklace off and holding it to the side so they could see. “The only way Dai Shi could be bound was if those three became masters. Master Mao told me this before I ever met them, and all the fighting was in the hopes that they would achieve their stripes before Dai Shi managed to break free completely.”

“And you knew this?” Fran asked. RJ could hear her slowly slipping to sit down, hard. “You knew Casey would die?”

“No!” RJ said, shocked at the thought. He turned around and knelt to face her. “No, I was sure he would survive. I wasn’t sure about myself, or my dad, or the other masters. When Dom arrived I was afraid he would be killed. But I was sure those three would live to see the end, whatever it might be.” He sighed softly. “But it turned out death wasn’t the worst outcome.”

“How can you say that?” Fran asked, grabbing his arm and looking scandalized. “How is Casey being alive a bad thing?”

RJ couldn’t meet her gaze, directing his look pleadingly toward Dominic instead. At last Dominic’s glare softened into his usual compassionate self, and he walked three steps over, putting a steadying hand on RJ’s back before turning to Fran. “It’s because now, if we can’t save him, _we_ will have to kill him.”

Fran’s eyes widened, and she scuttled backwards, scrambling to her feet. “What?”

RJ took a long breath before meeting her gaze. “Casey is a grid bomb,” he explained quietly. “If we can’t save him, he’ll destroy the morphing grid the next time anyone morphs. Anyone morphed will die, and there will be no more power rangers.”

“But isn’t that okay?” Fran asked, looking between the two of them. “Dai Shi is sealed! We don’t need Rangers.”

“Dai Shi may be sealed, but he was only one evil,” RJ explained gently, pushing himself to his feet slowly, dusting off his knees as he did so. “There are many more to come. If there are no Rangers to answer the evil, the entire world will fall.”

He saw as comprehension dawned on Fran’s face. A horrified grief etched into the lines of her face. “And that’s why you want to go alone?” she asked, “So you can kill him?”

RJ shook his head. “No,” he said gently. “I don’t want the rest of the team to have to kill him after he destroys me.”

He felt as Dominic stiffened behind him. “That’s a terrible plan.”

“Do you have a better one?” RJ asked, turning to face his oldest friend, eyebrow raised. “If I can’t get through to him, I doubt anyone else who is strong enough to get to him in the underworld will be able to pull him out.”

Dominic visibly wanted to argue, but just as obviously couldn’t come up with a sufficiently good argument against his reasoning. They both knew Bulk could probably call Casey’s better nature to the surface. But apart from his erstwhile father figure, Casey had precious few bonds to humanity strong enough to break through genetic programming.

RJ could see as Dominic came to the same conclusions he had. “Okay,” Dominic said, “I’ll tell Lily and Theo to stand down. But RJ,” his grey eyes bored into RJ’s intensely, “I’m going with you.”

RJ hesitated, but knowing it was more than he’d expected to get, he nodded.

 

Two more were to join their party before they ventured into the abyss. As the finishing touches were being put on the spell to reopen the underworld, not only did Ryan stride back in, but with him was a young looking woman with blonde hair, freckles, and an aura more powerful than most of the Mystics put together. Both wore leather, Ryan a thick jacket and pants as protective gear. The woman seemed more in it for the aesthetic, as her top had no sleeves. It was, however, a rather intimidating look all said.

To RJ’s surprise, she beelined for him and Dominic without hesitation. “RJ?” she asked, her voice unexpectedly high and musical. “Which of you is RJ?”

RJ held out his hand, which she shook with a warm smile. “Lovely to meet you! You can call me Karone, I helped raise Casey when he was little. Tommy Oliver gave my brother a call when Casey was taken. I decided I’d join the rescue team.”

Her hand was slight compared to RJ’s, but he could feel the muscles in it were stronger than his, she could break his hand without even trying. Likewise her aura was _loud,_ dissonant to the world. “Who are you?” he asked, trying to keep his tone curious instead of rude. “I don’t believe-“

She laughed, pulling her hand away. “Casey didn’t mention me?” Her smile was bright, but there was a slightly dismayed look in her eyes.

“He mentioned a lot of people,” RJ hedged. “I’m afraid I couldn’t keep track of them all.”

“Oh,” Karone’s smile softened, more genuine than it was. “I see. I’m the sister of Andros, the red Space Ranger.”

RJ frowned, thinking back on the various friends and relations Casey had mentioned. “His uncle?” Another moment passed, and his eyes widened. “You’re his mother?”

Rather than broadening further, her smile softened into fondness. “In a way,” she agreed. “My brother brought him to me when he was an infant, the three of us raised him.”

A wave of sympathy for when he had sprung his dad and all their issues on Casey rose in RJ. For while Karone wasn’t exactly intimidating, nor as rough around the edges as his dad, he found he abruptly wasn’t quite sure how to behave. This feeling wasn’t at all helped by the fact that she looked not much older than him, though to have helped raise Casey she had to be at least forty. Then again, she was an alien, he reasoned, and it could well be they age differently.

As if sensing his discomfort, Karone grabbed his arm and guided him away from Fran and Dominic who were watching with open amusement. “Farkas tells me Casey fell in love with you,” she said warmly. “Would you tell me about him?”

RJ’s heart ached at her words, but he found he couldn’t refuse. As Dominic and Fran helped Ryan and the Mystics, carrying things around the room, setting up wards and safeguards, he slowly, haltingly told the story of how Casey had become a power ranger.

It was a story of fond memories, training practices and pizza and all too many fights. He tried to remember the events in a practical order, but they inevitably mashed together into a blur of the first time Casey designed a new pizza flavor, the first time he straight up told RJ they were _not_ serving pizza with wasabi on it, the first time he blew up a monster, the first time he reached out and tried to drag RJ out of himself.

But it was also full of so many last times. The last time Casey had hugged him, the last time he had laughed at RJ’s façade, the last time he’d complained about having to mop the floor even though the others were clearly passing it off to him so they could go on a not-date, the last time that he’d kicked away foot soldiers with a glint of battled rush and determination in his eyes.

The last time he tried to get RJ to ask them for help.

The last time he asked for help, and received none.

There wasn’t enough time for him to say everything, but he hoped he was giving Karone a good idea of how amazing her erstwhile son had become. How powerful his magic was, and how little he needed it.

As he slowly ran out of words, it felt like a vise in his chest had been loosened somewhat. As he stuttered to a halt, and words failed him, he met Karone’s warm eyes.

“Thank you,” she said, smiling at him, and brushing his hair back from his face. “I’m glad Casey found his way to good people.”

“I’m sorry,” RJ said quietly.

“Don’t be,” Karone said, pulling him to his feet. “If you must apologize, then apologize to Casey when we find him. He’ll need a friendly face.” She glanced over her shoulder, mischief alive in her face. “Come on, they’ve been ready for a while now. They’re just waiting for you.”

RJ looked over in surprise, finding that indeed, the matrix of the spell was complete. The group was sitting with Dom and Fran, swapping stories while Ryan looked on, leaning against the wall and observing with thinly veiled amusement. Shouts of laughter came from Xander and Chip as Dominic finished a story about a mishap in the kitchen, a simple story of Theo accidentally bumping into Casey, who dropped a stack of dishes causing Lily to spill a tub of tomato sauce, leading to absolute chaos when the alarms sounded and they had to go fight the monster covered in tomato gunk.

It was a little unfair, RJ thought as he followed Karone over to his friends, to tell that story when they weren’t there to point out that it was Dominic who had tripped Theo and set off the chain of events. But perhaps, he thought as Dominic met his gaze with a familiar wink, that would have ruined the story.

Then again, he wasn’t opposed to throwing his friend under the bus. “And why exactly did Theo bump into Casey then?” he asked, plopping down to sit crossed legged next to Dominic, giving him a reproving look worthy of his Master status.

Fran burst out laughing and shoved Dominic’s shoulder, “You didn’t!” she said. “If you started out with that sort of nonsense it’s no wonder Casey kept threatening to throw you off the team!”

“What?” Dominic asked, head whipping around to face her. “He didn’t!’

“Afraid so, amigo,” RJ said, carefully containing his laughter. “He would quite frequently come up to the loft muttering about all the places he was planning on marooning you using the batzord.”

Dom’s shocked expression warmed into a sad smile. “I guess I did go too far sometimes.”

Fran punched his shoulder again, which he rubbed gingerly. “Sometimes? I’m glad they accepted you on the team but even I wasn’t sure it was a good idea when you mixed up the salt and sugar, and all the peppers.”

“One time!’ Dominic protested, “Just one time!”

Around them, as the Mystics laughed, RJ could feel Xander’s gaze on him. He met his eyes with a tilt of his head, and Xander nodded slowly. An understanding that their team dynamics weren’t so different, as RJ had seen a similar streak of chaos in Xander as they had traveled.

Perhaps fortunately, their further telling of stories were broken up by Ryan pushing himself off the wall with his foot, standing grumpily above them. “Are we doing this, or what?” He said.

Udonna rose gracefully, clapping her hands together. “Quite right, Ryan. Everyone, eat a quick meal, take care of any other physical needs you might have, we’ll begin in two hours.”


	24. Chapter 24

24.

RJ hadn’t been sure what to expect of this spell. All the magic he’d seen Casey do had been very natural, much like releasing his animal spirit it just flowed out of him in a blue glow of power. This spell was nothing like that. Methodically the Mystic Rangers took up their positions, forming a nine pointed star with the djinn cat taking one position. They positioned Karone, Ryan and RJ next to casters, Ryan next to Udonna so that she could use his genetic makeup to help fuel the spell, Karone next to the cat, and RJ next to Xander.

For a moment, they stood in position and breathed. Then on Udonna’s cue, they slowly raised their arms, raising wooden wands in an arch to above their heads, then they brought them down sharply as Udonna began reading in an ancient language, not quite Latin but related, from the Xenotome. The cat simply pointed his finger in tandem with them, a fact RJ could see concerned Karone slightly.

The Rangers brought their wands to their chests and then in sharp strokes back toward the center in perfect sync, again and again making, punctuating each movement with a “ _Ha!”_ to keep in time with each other. Then, as Udonna neared the end of the spell, they pointed them toward a star they had painted onto the ceiling, blue light exploding along all the spell lines and wards they had painted throughout the room.

They held the power there for a long moment, then the cat moved his finger down, opening the portal as the ward solidified. RJ could feel Xander shaking with effort next to him, and silently he touched his back, offering what strength he could. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Karone put out her hand, a wicked looking staff coming to her hand without a word. As if she, too, felt the slight instability that was shaking the process, she lifted the staff like a javeline above her head, combining her power with the cat’s.

Abruptly the walls went purple, but the influx of power sang throughout the room. To their credit, only Chip and Madison looked over in surprise, and even so they didn’t falter in their casting.

_“So ven motier!”_ Udonna yelled, clapping her hands together, and it was as though reality itself shifted. For just a moment, RJ felt as if his skin was wrong for the world he was in, then it settled around him, and the mystics relaxed their positions.

They were left inside a glowing matrix, held together in no small part by Karone and the cat’s power. Udonna turned to Karone first, bowing to her slightly. “Thank you, that spell was more difficult than we anticipated.”

Karone smiled tiredly. “Of course,” she said gently. “Rangers help one another.” She leaned on the staff she held, looking mildly perturbed to be holding it. But the Mystics didn’t seem to notice, or perhaps didn’t care. Power was always something of a danger, after all.

“Very well,” Udonna said, “Vida, Nick, you take the front. Xander and Chip, you will keep Ryan, RJ and Karone safe until we reach Casey. Madison and I will put up shields as necessary.”

The Mystics bowed their heads, and immediately RJ found Chip at his elbow.

Karone however, shook her head. “I’ll go with Nick and Vida,” she said gently, “they may need my power.”

Udonna bowed her head in acknowledgement, and in moments they’d formed up to go through the portal. Karone stepped between Nick and Vida, leading the way. As they stepped into the center of the design on the floor a maelstrom broke open, a swirling blue and white power that looked like an electrified water tornado. They vanished into the whirl of light, and the light continued to spin even once they had vanished.

As they moved forward to take their turn, RJ saw Daggeron was watching Chip with knitted brows, looking as if he wished to take his place in the forward mission, but knew Chip would never accept the task of watching the portal and maintaining the wards. So instead he simply put a hand to his heart as they left, a signal that RJ didn’t entirely understand but that was impossible to mistake.

Chip’s gentle hold on RJ’s elbow tightened slightly in response to the action, but otherwise he showed no sign of fear as they stepped into the whirling maelstrom. As he stepped in, the last thing RJ saw was Dominic’s pinched expression as he took up a place in the star, spirit ready to rampage if they needed to force end the spell.

The portal was cold, much as Casey’s magic had always felt. But it tingled on RJ’s skin less familiarly. He kept his eyes open as he was transported, and while all he could see was a bright light, he felt as though a bright light was being beamed into his eyes so he couldn’t see what lay behind it.

With barely a jolt, they appeared in a dark corridor like cave system. Glancing over at Ryan, whose elbow was held gently by a stone faced Xander, he saw that behind the steely gaze Ryan put forth the man was apprehensive at his return to this dimension.

“Where from here?” he asked as Madison and Udonna appeared behind them.

“Straight ahead,” Ryan replied tightly before anyone else could speak. “Straight down this corridor for about a mile, then left at the columns and right into the throne room.”

Karone nodded curtly, and gently tapped the end of her staff onto the floor of the cavern, her appearance changing instantly into that of a blue haired woman with harsh metal armor, and an iron circlet on her head. “I’ll take on Bansheera,” she said firmly. “You all focus on Casey.”

“You have no idea what power she has,” Ryan objected, stepping toward her.

“I was Astronema, Princess of Evil,” Karone replied, stepping forward to meet him. She gently caressed his chin with one hand, meeting his eyes with a wicked looking smile. “I met all the evils around at the time. Bansheera was a small matter, barely even recognized by Darkonda as a threat.”

“You aren’t Darkonda,” Ryan pointed out, slapping her hand away.

“No,” she agreed, turning back to Nick and Vida, walking with decidedly more swagger. “And I’m not the Princess of Evil anymore. But she doesn’t have to know that.”

“Use me as a distraction,” Ryan said as the three of them moved to continue on ahead.

“What?” Karone turned around sharply, losing the persona for a moment.

Ryan strode over. “She’ll believe you more if you bring me to her as a present. Make it seem like you’re making an overture to restart the evil council or whatever.”

Karone’s hands were in tight fists, but her face betrayed nothing. “Are you sure, Ryan? I don’t want to make this harder for you.”

“I’ll take any hit I can get on her,” Ryan replied, no doubt in his words or body language.

“Okay.” Karone nodded slightly, turning to the Mystics. “Sorry to change plans, but if you can keep any demonic intruders at bay to get the three of us there, we should be able to do this.”

Udonna nodded, all the Mystics turning to her. “Madison and I will hold the portal. The rest of you, get them as far as the throne room, then hold the retreat route.”

“Understood,” Chip said sharply, the others murmuring their agreement. Together they turned back down the corridor, Chip and Xander taking positions on either side of RJ while the other three formed around Ryan. RJ was tempted to protest that he didn’t need the protection, but, he also knew that it was unlikely anyone would listen. His powers, not being of magical origin, didn’t compare with the elemental raw power of those around him. But it still felt strange to be protected, to be considered the civilian of the situation.

It didn’t take long for bat-like eyes to find them, forming into bat headed foot soldiers that emitted high pitched screams. Without a word, Vida and Nick moved in tandem, moving in front of everyone else and with a series of motions brought their wands together. A torrential breeze made of fire flooded the air, burning away the eyes and foot soldiers alike.

But more came, falling from the ceiling among them, having been watching them the whole time. With a look, Xander and Chip smiled at each other and slammed their wands to the ground.

Immediately vines sprouted over all the walls. They were brown and dead looking, but they surrounded anything living on the cave, and with an extra tap Chip sent electricity through them, zapping anything the vines touched.

It was over in only a few moments, a faint smell of burning throughout the air the only mark that any of the bat creatures had been there at all as the vines withered back into the walls.

Everyone took a slow breath, then continued on. Near the midpoint of their march to the throne room, a few tunnels converged on their position, and a swarm of the bat-creatures flew forth. Four different tunnels, and while Chip, Xander, Vida and Nick cast their spells again, a good number more escaped than the last time.

But before Karone could cast a spell of her own, RJ raised his arms, and said, “Spirit of the Wolf.”

It didn’t take much for his frustration and fear and grief to send his animal spirit out, charging around the tunnels and through the foot soldiers as if they were nothing. Through the vines and electricity, through the vortex of flames and around the baffled group of Rangers.

When the wolf returned to him, once again the high pitched shrieks had stopped. RJ opened his eyes to find five Rangers looking at him with something akin to awe, and Karone looking both amused and pleased.

“Shall we continued?” she asked, as the moment dragged a pace too long.

Regathering themselves, they started off once again. But this time, Chip and Xander walked with a purpose to watch each others’ backs, both clearly having decided RJ had this covered. It was enough to make him smile slightly, as the two relaxed enough to take hands a pace behind him.

“You should hold the intersection,” he said quietly to them without turning around. “If we get caught there, there’s no getting back.”

“Got it,” Xander agreed, falling back a pace. “Let the others know, yeah?”

“We heard,” Karone said, just as quietly.

It seemed silly to try for stealth after having massacred so many foot soldiers already. But somehow the air around them seemed to whisper that they had to be careful, not to breathe too loud or else they’d be doomed.

After the kerfuffle at the intersection, however, things were quiet. They reached the turn, and RJ waved the others back, walking forward without making a sound to check around the corner. He closed his eyes, letting his spirit do the searching for him.

Ahead was a giant chamber surrounded with pillars. Corpses of demons and human bones were littered around the edges of the room. But of primary importance was Bansheera, all but part of a wall between particularly dramatic pillars. Casey was on the opposite side of the room, tinkering with something. His eyes looked blank, and he wore black robes that made RJ feel nervous.

With a slight pang of troubled pride, he did note that when Casey’s sleeve slipped up his arm a bit his Master’s mark could be seen quiet clearly. So he had, indeed, achieved Mastery before his death. How that had led to him joining their final battle, RJ wasn’t sure. But it was somewhat promising.

Less promising were the hoards of demons in the throne room. It stretched for miles, and he could sense that there were endless rows of monsters, many of whom he was sure had been defeated more than once by the Lightspeed Rangers.

Opening his eyes, he reported his findings in hushed tones. Karone nodded as he finished describing the hoards of monsters. “That’s why I’m here,” she reminded them all gently. “If I make enough of a fuss, no one will notice when you two,” she nodded to Nick and Vida, “grab Casey out of there. RJ, you’ll have about fifteen minutes to bring him back to us, if we’re lucky.” She patted his shoulder as he flinched at the time constraints. “I believe in you.”

With that she grabbed Ryan roughly by the collar, giving him one last chance to take an out. Then with a shattering of blue sparkles they both vanished, reappearing in the next chamber with a flourish and causing the entire room to erupt in shock and rage.

As Nick and Vida went to grab Casey, RJ closed his eyes and watched again as Karone zapped back any monsters that tried to get near.

“What a way to welcome your Princess, Bansheera,” Karone sneered, widening the circle around her and Ryan with a flourish of her staff.

“ _WHAT BRINGS YOU HERE, ASTRONEMA?”_ Bansheera’s voice echoed through the tunnels, the sound making RJ wish he could plug his ears to stop it.

“I bring a gift,” Karone shoved Ryan to his knees. “A Ranger you lost a while ago, or so I hear.” She walked around him, showing off her prize with an alarming certainty.

The room’s volume rose again, and as it did RJ found himself drawn back to himself, sensing Nick and Vida had succeeded.

And indeed, when he opened his eyes it was to Casey, held on either side by the Mystics, standing calmly in front of him. His face was blank, betraying nothing of his intentions. Likewise, apart from being too thin, probably from a lack of food, Casey showed no particular signs of mistreatment.

Equally he showed no signs of having fought against Nick and Vida. Silently, RJ waved them to guard the entrance to the tunnel. Casey made no move to go back to the other room. He didn’t move at all. His eyes looked right through RJ as if he weren’t there. As if Casey was seeing something very different from the room they were in.

“Casey,” RJ breathed, gently putting a hand on his shoulder. “Casey, are you all right?”

Casey didn’t respond, other than to blink once.

Sighing, RJ let his hand drop. Of course it would be more difficult than that. “It’s morphing time,” he tried gently.

“There are no Rangers.” Casey responded mechanically, his eyes flicking to RJ briefly. “The Grid has been destroyed. The Rangers have been destroyed.”

“What do you mean?” RJ took hold of Casey’s face, trying to make him meet his eyes. “Casey, we’re right here.”

“There are no Rangers,” Casey said again, his tone never changing.

“ _WHERE IS MY CREATION!”_ Bansheera shrieked. “ _HE MUST EXPLAIN THE TITANIUM RANGER’S CONTINUED EXISTENCE!”_

Cursing in his mind, RJ tried to duck behind a pillar as the bat soldiers flooded out, grabbing Casey and after a pace, RJ, and dragging them before Bansheera.

Karone glanced the slightest of apologies at him, Ryan already unconscious on the floor before her. “It is no business of _mine_ that your toy claims he destroyed the Rangers,” she sneered at Bansheera. “I came to negotiate a place on the council of Evil for you or your representative. Yet all I get is blame for your own failings!”

Bansheera sent a sheet of power toward Karone, but with a wave of her staff she sent it flying off into the monsters. “How _dare_ you?” Karone shouted, aiming a blast back at Bansheera, who shrieked in pain. As bats surrounded her, Karone tapped the base of her staff on the floor again, sending the monsters and bat soldiers flying back, then she dissolved into blue glitter once again, Ryan vanishing with her.

For a moment, RJ thought he would be grabbed into it as well. But it was as if another power countered it, holding him in place as Bansheera turned her attention to Casey once more.

“ _WHY DO THE RANGERS LIVE?”_ she screamed into their minds.

Casey faced her blankly. “There are no more Rangers. They have been destroyed.”

“ _THE TITANIUM RANGER IS ALIVE! ASTRONEMA BROUGHT HIM HERE!”_

“There is no Ryan,” Casey said, looking around himself. “There are no Rangers. I destroyed all ability to morph.”

RJ’s eyes widened. They had all been avoiding morphing so hard that it had never occurred to him that they _couldn’t_ already. Surreptitiously he slipped his morpher onto his wrist from where it was kept in his pocket.

“Spirit of the wolf,” he whispered, touching the morphing mechanism. Nothing happened, no spark of power, no indication he’d done anything. Without a word he slipped it back into his pocket, eyes wide. No one could morph, and so long as that was the case, Casey couldn’t be considered a grid bomb, as he couldn’t kill anyone who morphed if no one could morph. _Truly,_ RJ thought, glancing at Casey with a sad smile, _you can do anything._

“ _I ORDERED YOU TO DESTROY THE RANGERS.”_ Bansheera shrieked in their heads, like superheated knives to their frontal lobes.

“There are no more Rangers,” Casey replied once again.

“ _KILL THEM ALL!_ ” Bansheera screeched. _“KILL ALL THE RANGERS!”_

“There _are_ no Rangers,” Casey replied, finally a touch of emphasis on a word. For his efforts he was knocked to his knees by a rush of fury from Bansheera.

RJ was relieved to see Karone appear once again in the middle of the floor. She dispensed with any niceties, however, and simply bashed her spear on the floor until the way was clear, then turned it on Bansheera, throwing all her power at the demon queen. “Go!” she called, “I’m sending her to a deeper hell dimension, but you have to go! The portal spell is getting shaky!”

Nodding once, RJ ripped Dai Shi from his neck and tossed it to her. Somehow, she managed to catch it without breaking concentration. “That’s another great evil,” he said, “Send it with her if you can.”

“Got it!” she said, throwing the tightly wound ball of evil straight into Bansheera, before one again using the full force of her power to seal the Demon Queen away.

RJ, meanwhile, grabbed Casey, dragging him out of the room as best he could. He was frustratingly stiff and unmovable. But when RJ hissed, “Move, Casey. You have to follow me,” he did do that. So he counted it as an arguable win. ”Run!” he yelled, when it became clear Casey intended to walk the whole way. It spurred him on enough that RJ hoped they had a chance. The bats were everywhere, and while Nick and Vida were doing their best, and Ryan was punching, shooting and cursing at anything he could reach, it wasn’t enough.

“We have to get out of here,” RJ told Casey as they ran. “We have to get through the bats.”

Casey turned his head, gaze still quite blank. But without a word, the air around them cooled, and the creatures opposing them began to fade away, as if ordered back by forces more powerful than them. Even so, a good number of monsters were chasing them by the time they reached Xander and Chip.

Once they’d run past them, Xander and Chip set up a wall of electric vines, blocking off after the intersection’s entrances. And even so, as they ran flying eyes flitted around RJ’s face annoyingly. He sent the wolf at them a few times, but it was clear that Bansheera, despite fighting Karone, had ordered the return of Casey at any cost.

“Keep him going,” RJ said to Chip and Xander, turning to more seriously engage. But Xander shook his head, pushing him onward. “We’ve got this mate,” he said, taking Chip’s hand again. “Get him out.”

“Yeah,” Chip said with a bright, if somewhat pasted on grin. “Knights don’t run away.”

RJ shook his head, but turned, grabbing Casey’s hand and dragged him on down the miles of tunnel till he reached Udonna and Madison. “They’re holding our retreat,” he gasped out. “All five of them stopped to keep the monsters at bay.”

“Wait for it,” Udonna said to Madison, both poised and ready as Nick and Vida, Ryan and finally a determined but weary looking Chip and Xander stubled backwards down the tunnel, desperately defending against the swarms.

“Now!” Udonna called, and Madison spun, flicking her wand at the oncoming storm of monsters, sending water rushing toward them. But as it flew through the air, Udonna raised her wand, and the water turned into razor sharp shards of ice that sliced through the monsters without mercy.

“Maddie!” Chip called, “Go!”

Once again, Madison sent a wave of water toward the monsters, and this time Chip added electricity to the mix, sending a good chunk of the monsters sprawling.

“V!” Madison called, and her sister winked at her before turning a third wave of water into a water tornado that continued down the paths for quite a ways, clearing out the monsters closest to reaching them.

“Go on through,” Udonna instructed them, waving Ryan through and nodding to RJ. “We’ll hold them off until Karone can get back.”

Reluctantly, but knowing it to be the best possible choice, RJ dragged Casey through the portal, coming out the other side dizzy, weary, and one Pai Zhua Master heavier than when he went in.

Only to find they were back in the Throne room.

 

The Throne room had emptied, except for Karone and Bansheera. Casey walked back over to Bansheera, as if she was speaking to his mind alone. RJ’s heart sank as he moved to stop Karone’s attack. Desperately, RJ blocked him.

For the first time since they’d arrived, Casey’s expression changed. He frowned, hesitating in his attack. “This man is no threat,” Casey said, looking over at Bansheera. “Why do you command I kill him?”

“ _HE IS A RANGER!”_ Bansheera’s scream sent RJ reeling, an attack on his brain.

“There are no Rangers!” Casey shouted desperately, “I destroyed them as you commanded! The Morphing Grid is no more!”

Bansheera paused in her fury, giving Karone quarter to pause her attack and slam the tip of her staff on the ground, opening a fissure through dimensions before she returned to wearing down the demon queen.

“Morph, RJ,” she said, “As long as he doesn’t have to choose, Casey will not.”

“I can’t,” he hissed back, “He disconnected our morphers.”

Krone’s eyebrows flew upwards, but her attention was turned firmly back to Bansheera. “I need his help, RJ.”

RJ frowned, casting about for a course of action. The room had no weapons he could use to aid her, and the spirit of the wolf alone wouldn’t be nearly enough for him to turn whatever balance was being maintained by Bansheera and Karone.

A flash of red from inside Casey’s black robes, however, caught his eye. Casey’s morpher, tucked carefully by his heart. Without a word he slipped past Casey, grabbing it on his way. “You missed one, didn’t you?” he asked as Casey spun to face him. “No one can morph, but can you?”

Entirely unsure it would work, working with the vestiges of long borrowed power, RJ put the sunglasses on his face. “Spirit of the Tiger!” he called, attempting to channel it as his students had their Master’s powers, trying to view it as a strange Master mode even though he knew it was definitely not that.

But it did work. Red shocks flooded around him, and the morph felt fundamentally _wrong,_ but he managed to channel what he had left of the tiger spirit from all the times he’d formed a zord with Casey’s spirit, into a fragile, shaky morph.

As the light died from around him, RJ felt a great desire to fall over. The tiger’s power was warm over his skin, but under it the morph felt _wrong,_ it was a power he was never supposed to hold, and it was draining him. The world was fuzzy through the helmet, and he felt as the morph rejected him. Or maybe Casey was doing as Bansheera ordered and destroying the grid in earnest, and him with it.

Distantly aware he was screaming, RJ felt hands shake his shoulders.

“RJ, you have to Power Down!”

Casey’s desperate call filtered through the haze of red, and he managed to focus on the black clad form in front of him. “Casey,” he wheezed. “Help Karone.”

“You have to power down, RJ,” Casey repeated, “You’re going to be destroyed!’

“Don’t destroy me then,” RJ muttered, falling to his knees as exhaustion took hold of him. “Help us.”

With a cry of frustration, Casey held a hand over toward Bansheera, letting go of RJ and clutching his head against her attempts to take back control from him. “Fine, I’m helping, just power down!”

“Power… Down…” RJ said quietly before collapsing out of morph onto the floor.

His arms and legs felt like jelly, and his organs felt a little scrambled. But for the moment, it appeared Casey and Karone were dealing with Bansheera. It was hard to tell, as the energy between the two of them was so bright he couldn’t even slightly see the demon queen behind it. Around him pillars were falling, and the hole into the void dimension Karone had opened was widening. He saw as Dai Shi’s ball fell in, followed by the glowing shards that fell from the throne area, a bright explosion of energy that threw Casey and Karone backwards.

When he could see again, the floor had closed up, and Casey was standing above him in a shredded red uniform, concern etched into his face. RJ was distantly aware that he was glowing, blue energy being channeled into him by Casey. Bad then, he thought, I must have overdone it a bit.

Karone’s face appeared beside Casey’s. “You can stop now,” she said, her words echoing in RJ’s head, too quiet and too loud. “He’ll be okay.”

“No,” Casey said, wiping his face with one hand. A drop of water still fell onto RJ’s face. Tears, why tears?

“Casey,” he whispered, slowly lifting a hand that was grasped by both of Casey’s.

“I’m sorry, RJ,” he said, “I’ll heal you, you’ll be okay.”

“Don’t be,” the world was going darker, but it felt safe. “I believe in you.”


	25. Chapter 25

25.

Consciousness was slow to return. For what felt like days, RJ slipped between half-awake and deep slumber. He wasn’t quite sure where he was, only that his surroundings were far from comforting. High pitched screams echoed deep into his dreams, sounds that made his head ache even in unconsciousness. But eventually, oblivion ceased to hold much interest for him. As wooden as his limbs felt, RJ found his eyes opening, and a dim light reached them.

Glancing around he found Karone sitting by a column. She had gotten rid of the blue hair and metal armor, instead back in her leather gear, though her staff was still close at hand. “What happened?” he asked quietly.

She glanced at him, startled, then her face softened into a smile. “We won. Bansheera has been banished to a dimension she’ll never get out of. At least, not without help.”

“Casey?” RJ asked, slowly wiggling his fingers and toes, testing his strength incrementally.

“He’s asleep,” Karone replied, waving a hand to her left. “We take turns keeping watch.”

RJ lifted his head, putting it back down rapidly as the world spun a little. He groaned. “Still in the hell dimension?”

Karone nodded, not moving to help him, clearly knowing it wouldn’t do any good. “The portal closed, I’m afraid.”

Taking a deep breath, RJ pushed himself into a sitting position, letting the dizziness pass through him, reorienting with careful breathing. This time Karone moved, helping him over to a column he could lean against.

“You shouldn’t be too eager to move,” she cautioned. “Morphing with someone else’s power is dangerous. That stunt could have killed you.”

“But it didn’t,” RJ replied with a grin. “That’s all that matters.”

Karone slapped his shoulder lightly, unwittingly hitting where Dai Shi had once tried to steal his animal spirit. “That’s not true and you know it.”

For a long moment RJ let silence take over the room, the only sound that of the bat soldiers in the distance.

“Is there any way out?” he asked, the moment having passed.

Karone picked up her staff, fiddling with it uselessly. “I used up most of my strength fighting Bansheera,” she admitted, “and Casey’s not much better off. With time we’ll get out energy back, but until then I’m afraid we’re trapped.” Without moving her hands, she summoned a water flask that looked like it had been made in the underworld to her hand, offering it to him. “Water,” she explained, “we haven’t found much food yet, but there is good water here.”

RJ accepted it gratefully, sipping at the metallic liquid carefully. It wasn’t a pleasant taste, but it wasn’t poison. He drank slowly, though he was desperately thirsty, knowing all too well his body needed time to adjust. “How long was I out?”

“I don’t know.” Karone’s voice was clear, but sounded mildly troubled. “It’s difficult to track time down here.”

RJ nodded slightly. “You said you’ve taken shifts sleeping?”

“Four or so,” she replied, looking grimly at the floor. “But we’re both drained and exhausted, so that means less than it might.”

“Maybe a day or two,” RJ said, “optimistically. It’s a ballpark estimate.”

Karone nodded agreement, leaning back against the pillar across from his and putting her staff across her knees. “Casey’s working on reconnecting the grid,” she said wearily. “When we’re both awake anyway.”

RJ’s felt his eyebrows creeping up his forehead. “Does he have enough energy for that?”

Karone shrugged. “He said he has the samurai rangers back online, which was his primary concern. I don’t know about the rest. He mentioned Carter.”

“He would,” RJ replied, warmth spreading in his chest. Of course Casey would immediately worry about those most effected by the blackout. The samurai rangers weren’t quite active yet, but they had noticed the Mooger threat was getting worse even as they came closer to defeating Dai Shi. That Casey also remembered Carter needed the Grid only solidified RJ’s faith that things would be okay. “He’s like that.”

Karone smiled at him. “So I’ve gathered. You care for him a great deal.”

“I love him.” RJ replied bluntly. “I will always love him.”

“Then he is fortunate,” Karone replied, cracking her neck wearily. “Not many Rangers can say their loved ones truly understand what they go through.”

“You two are entirely too noisy,” a third voice chimed in from across the room. With a rustle of cloth, Casey came out from behind some rubble, looking pinched and exhausted but present. He walked over; plopping down next to RJ and leaning against him as if there weren’t a million things they needed to clear the air on before they could even begin to continue sorting out who and what they were to each other.

RJ closed his eyes, the weight of his former student reassuringly present. Even just leaning against him, Casey felt lighter than he ever had before. But his hair still brushed against RJ’s chin with a gentle fluff that tickled, and his slight frame still fell against RJ’s seamlessly.

Without even thinking about it, he began carding his hand through Casey’s hair. “Sorry for waking you.”

Casey shook his head slightly, nuzzling closer as he did so. “Glad you’re awake.”

“Sorry for scaring you,” RJ replied, gently massaging Casey’s neck, causing him to sigh and relax against RJ, falling back asleep.

RJ glanced at Karone, who was watching them with a half smile. “I’ll keep watch,” she said softly. “Rest while we can.”

Acknowledging this, RJ let his eyes slide shut. But rather than sleeping, he slipped into meditation, breathing controlled and shallow, his mind flying forth into the worlds as they had never been able to when he was on Earth. It felt like his animal spirit was trying to find home.

And find home it did, running straight into Dominic, who he could see was in the cavern with the Mystic Rangers, thankfully they all seemed to have gotten out. But Dominic sounded, angry. Frustrated. Afraid. As RJ watched Fran tugged him away, where he punched at a wall, eyes closed tightly in anguish. Apparently, RJ reasoned, the portal couldn’t be reopened.

“Dom,” he said, causing his friend to spin around, eyes zeroing in on where his spirit was.

“RJ,” he said quietly. “Are you okay?”

“We’re safe,” RJ replied, “just a bit trapped for the moment. Casey is okay.”

Dominic visibly slumped, “Oh thank god,” he said, running a hand over his face. “I can’t lose you too man, I just, can’t lose another friend.”

“I know,” RJ said, wishing he could reach out reassuringly. “Can they open another portal?”

“Not for a while,” Dominic replied, shaking his head. “I’ve asked, they used a lot of energy with the first attempt. They don’t have enough juice to try again right now.”

His heart sank slightly, but he responded steadily. “I understand that, Bansheera was sealed away and its drained Casey and Karone. We’ll just have to wait it out, I guess.”

“I guess,” Dominic agreed. He glanced around, noticing Fran watching him with great concern. “They can’t see you?”

“Not enough connection I guess.” If he had a physical form, RJ probably would have shrugged. “I didn’t really know I could do this.”

“It is a bit weird,” Dominic agreed.

Distantly, RJ heard the bat soldier sounds were getting much louder. “Sounds like we have company,” he said, glancing reflexively back, even though as things were it did him no good. “I have to go. Take care, Dom.”

“You too-“

Dominic’s words were cut off as RJ opened his eyes, immediately alert. Karone was standing, ready to fight off an influx of bats. Without a word, RJ shifted Casey so he was leaning against the pillar instead of him, and shakily stood. “Spirit of the wolf!” he called, casting forth his spirit again.

He lacked the rage and fear of when he was searching for Casey, but with the control of a Master he cleared the room, then let it run down the tunnels a ways, chasing the bats away. After a few minutes, he recalled his spirit, sitting down hard.

“Thank you,” Karone said, offering a hand and helping him back over to Casey. “I could have handled it.”

“Yes,” he agreed. “But we need you to get us out of here.” He glanced at Casey, then back at Karone. “He’s not regaining energy.”

Karone smiled crookedly. “Neither am I,” she said quietly. “Without Bansheera here to stabilize this dimension there’s not much ambient power to absorb.”

“Ambient power?” RJ asked, leaning forward curiously.

Karone crossed her legs, laying her staff across them. “Magic has sources,” she explained. “Dark magic tends to come from hatred, anger, and the darkness of the universe. Natural magic, like Casey uses without meaning to, tends to come from one’s surroundings. Plants, the sun, the food you eat and the air you breathe. But here there’s primarily darkness, and neither he nor I draw from that source anymore.” She fingered her staff gingerly. “This does,” she said softly, holding it up so he could see it more clearly. “Darkonda created this staff so I could control the sheer amount of power I had at my disposal as a child.”

“So the staff is still regaining power?” RJ asked.

She nodded once. “I’m hoping it will be enough to get us back.” She stared at it as if it were a third hand she had never wanted to grow.

“You should rest,” RJ said. “We have nothing but time.”


	26. Chapter 26

26.

Consciousness returned to Casey slowly. He felt warm and safe, a feeling that he didn’t expect given that he could smell the air was that of the underworld. Opening his eyes, he found RJ was there, meditating and keeping watch while pulling double duty as a pillow.

Memories, fuzzy though they were, flooded back. Entering the grid and unplugging all the Ranger Power’s as a result of Bansheera’s extremely vague request. The request never ending, her voice in his head in an unending scream of _destroy the Rangers!_ He had thought he would go insane, in a distant sort of way. Saying again and again it was done, even though she didn’t for a moment listen.

He had heard the portal to Earth open, felt the battles going on in the hallway. But with his sole purpose being the destruction of the grid and all Rangers, he had seen no reason to tell Bansheera. Especially as every time he accessed the grid, his mind would clear and the endless demands from Bansheera would go silent.

It was peaceful in the grid, he had realized in his time down among the demons. It was an odd space, and depending on who you were it appeared slightly differently. For him it appeared like a family tree, teams branching off left and right, with sub-branches off of them, on into infinity. Possibilities were endless, and only a few were active. Sources of power were surprisingly common, but the monsters that would cause the power to be called often didn’t come to the light. It was, he supposed in a distant sort of way, a good thing the active teams were so few and far between.

Not all were, however. Dinosaur based powers made up a solid chunk, and he could see a few more sets of dinosaur powers were beginning to activate, whether or not it would come to anything was yet to be seen. Ninjas, there were several sets of. He was surprised to see the Aquitarian powers were filed a ways along that branch. Likewise he was somewhat surprised to find the Pai Zha rangers were far from the first animal power set. Certainly, he could see from the offshoots and similar branches, they would not be the last.

The Mystic powers, on the other hand, were off by themselves. Alone in a set of greater powers that he could see contained horrors that none of them would ever want to face. The more powerful the power, the more powerful the threat after all. So when he felt their magic in the tunnels, the outcome of the encounter seemed fairly well set. One way or another, Bansheera was used to fighting against rangers powered by human ingenuity, not by sheer power. She was ill prepared for such an encounter.

But as it turned out, he too was ill prepared. Seeing RJ again wasn’t something he had anticipated. Part of him had sighed, knowing that he should have expected it. For all RJ’s faults, whenever he thought they were in over their heads he was there, and he laid down far more of a challenge than Dai Shi had been able to counter. That he would do the same to any other villain, regardless of how dangerous, shouldn’t have surprised him at all.

And yet he was surprised. Perhaps even more surprised to see RJ than he was to see his mother. Some part of him had assumed she would throw down to save the Grid, but he had more expected a team with her, his uncles, Tommy, maybe a few of the other early teams. To have RJ march in with his mother and _Ryan_ of all people was something that, while again he felt he should have considered a possibility, wasn’t something that would have occurred to him.

Even more surprising to him, was that they had won. That RJ had thought to try and morph into an animal spirit that wasn’t his own was exactly the exasperating nonsense Casey loved about him so much. Equally, he hadn’t been in that much pain from the morphing grid since Wes had used the Quantum powers along with his own, back when he was a child. His animal spirit had protested being used in such a way, it was one thing to form a zord and quite another to be dragged out of Casey’s body, shard by shard to form a protective shell around RJ.

It shouldn’t have worked, he knew, but RJ had been borrowing it often enough that he apparently had control over Casey himself, in some ways. It was, a question to be sure. But one that had saved them in the end. The pain, the chaos, having his spirit called on by someone else, utterly broke the mind control, or at least through Bansheera’s constant telepathic screaming. Being able to see and feel and hear again normally was such a relief that Casey had all but collapsed in relief, only to find RJ standing in front of him in a twisted red and purple morph, screaming as grid energy rejected the morph, but unable to concentrate enough to power down.

It took far too long for RJ to say the words he needed to end it. Casey was terrified for a moment that the power would destroy RJ, or perhaps even kill him. But RJ was right when he commanded Casey to help his mother take down Bansheera. With RJ out of morph Casey could already feel tendrils of mind control creeping back into his brain. Only RJ’s broken pleas held him present enough to help banish Bansheera and a good chunk of her army to wherever the portal went.

Then to turn and find RJ lying as if he’d been hit by lightning, unconscious with burns incrementally across his body. He had looked pleadingly at his mother, knowing both of them were low on power, and without a word she helped him heal, pouring energy into him.

When they were done, Casey had wanted nothing more than to collapse. But with what energy he had left, he went back into the Grid, and reconnected vital connections. Carter and his team, Jayden and the other Samurai Rangers, and finally RJ and his own team, hoping the energy might help him heal.

He had emerged to sleep, take a brief shift watching, then sleep again. He wasn’t sure he could actually defend them if anything did happen to attack, given his exhaustion and that he had drained his magic to an alarming degree again. But RJ wasn’t waking, and even the ex-Princess of Evil had to sleep sometimes. So he did his best, and hoped each time he took a shift that RJ would wake up.

When he did finally wake to find RJ awake, it was to him saying, _“I will always love him.”_ Which was nice. Unexpected but a pleasant way to enter back into whatever they were. No matter how afraid he might have been in the depths of his mind about how RJ would react to what he had become, those words belied them all without even trying. What was there to fear when, with no knowledge of him listening, RJ was making bold statements of his love to Casey’s mother? He hadn’t even been brave enough to say as much to Master Finn.

Smiling to himself, he nuzzled against RJ’s shoulder, blinking slowly, letting himself wake in his own time. There was time, he knew deep in his bones. They were still in the underworld, but if anything that only gave them more freedom to take a breath. After all, if you _can’t_ leave a place its difficult to be blamed for staying there.

As he leaned against RJ, a warm hand carded through his hair. “Good morning,” RJ said warmly, a teasing note in his voice Casey hadn’t heard for quite some time.

“Is it?” he asked, knowing full well there was no way to tell.

“No, it’s three in the afternoon,” RJ deadpanned. “We’ve missed the two forty eight rush.”

“Aw man,” Casey said, chuckling under his breath. “Fran’ll kill us.”

RJ was still for a moment. “What is it?” Casey asked.

“Fran doesn’t work there anymore,” RJ said quietly. “She and Dom went off to travel the world once we’d won the battle.”

It wasn’t a shock exactly, Casey had known Dominic was going to keep traveling once they were done fighting. But it felt like a slight slap in the face, the knowledge that he had missed some rather significant events. “Huh,” he said slowly. “What about Theo and Lily?”

“Back to the academy,” RJ said, still tense and sounding a bit unsure. “They’re training people, being Masters.”

Casey nodded slowly, relaxing back against his shoulder. “Guess I missed a lot.”

RJ’s arm came up around his shoulders, pulling him closer. “Some,” he agreed. “But only a couple months.”

Casey sighed into his warmth. “Who’s in charge of the pizza parlor right now then? If you’re here.”

“My dad and Flit, if you would believe it,” RJ said. “Camille helped us break Flit’s curse after we defeated Dai Shi.”

It was weird to consider that Flit was a person. A person who was making pizza, and not flying around in his animal form and narrating battles. No more battles.

No more fighting.

It sat oddly in his mind, Having expected to not survive the encounter with Dai Shi, Casey realized for the first time since he was freed from Bansheera’s power that he had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. It was, after all, his own again. There was no going back to Jungle Karma Pizza and helping Theo and Lily close up, making a pizza for dinner before stretching down together in the evening. No more getting pulled out in the middle of a shift to get tossed around by a monster. No more being pranked by Dominic.

“Casey?” RJ’s hand, still carding through his hair stilled, his voice thick with concern.

Casey turned to look at him, confused, only to realize that his face was wet with tears and air was thick in his chest. “I missed, so much,” he said quietly. “It’s over. How is it over?”

RJ gathered him closer, curling around him as if he could protect him from the pain of what he was realizing. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m sorry.”

He wept for a while, or perhaps it was no time at all. Time didn’t matter. The rules of before seemed to no longer apply, and dimly Casey realized the last time RJ had held him like this he was fighting off poison. When the overwhelming emotions passed, Casey pushed himself back, meeting RJ’s eyes and asked, “Why are you sorry?”

RJ looked down, his hands clenched on his knees. “I sent you to your death,” he said quietly. “We were so determined to make you a Master, we didn’t consider the cost to you.”

“I’m not a Master, RJ,” Casey said, “what are you talking about?”

Without a word, RJ grabbed his arm, pushing the relatively intact sleeve back up his arm, revealing the stripes of a Master. He snatched his arm back, staring at it as if he’d been burned. Or, branded.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Casey said, poking at his arm gently, making sure it was his skin. “I failed the test.”

“The test was to see if you would find your own way through the barrier facing you,” RJ explained, voice weary. “From the moment you asked me for help, you’d already failed it.”

“Then how did this happen?” Casey asked, gesturing to his arm.

RJ ran a hand over his face. “No one believed you when you said you could save Jarrod. By following your own knowledge, against the will of every master you knew, you proved yourself a master in your own right.”

For a moment Casey digested his words. “That’s why you pulled away,” he said quietly. “You were afraid you’d interfere with me becoming a master.” He frowned, fists clenching. “Why did it matter so much? I wanted to become a master, but I would have preferred to have the support of my friends.”

RJ met his gaze, refusing as always to hide from his actions. “Dai Shi could only be defeated if you, Theo and Lily were masters. Master Mao asked us all to do whatever necessary to put you on the path to earning your stripes.”

It was a lot to absorb. Casey sat back, pulling his sleeve back over the mark on his arm. He had died with a sense of failure, when it ended up being exactly what he’d needed to do. He wasn’t sure how to feel about the calculated nature of the actions, that RJ would willingly turn from him in order to make him achieve his goals wasn’t surprising. He was oddly ruthless at times. But even at his most cold, Casey had always known that RJ loved them and would step in front of Dai Shi himself in order to protect them.

“That must have been difficult for you,” he said after a long silence. “Turning away.”

“Casey-“

Casey held up a hand, shaking his head slightly. “Did it work?” he asked. “Was me being a master in the demon’s underworld what you needed?”

“You came back for us,” RJ said softly. “Your spirit came back and helped Lily and Theo fight Dai Shi on the spirit plane. It was enough.”

“I did?” Casey laughed under his breath, casting his mind back and trying to find anything in his memory of it. But it was a blank space.

RJ’s eyes crinkled, “You did. Sky turned red and you came out of the clouds-“

Casey shoved his shoulder, laughing. “I get it, you don’t have to embellish.”

RJ opened his mouth as if to object, then his mouth twisted in what looked like a shrug, and he relaxed against the pillar again. “You were incredible.”

Casey sighed, sitting on his feet, as if a samurai kneeling before his lord. “So you knew I was going to do that.”

“Know is a strong word, amigo,” RJ said, closing his eyes. “I didn’t know how, or when. But you always did what you thought was right, I knew you would try to save Jarrod one way or another.”

“Did I?” Casey asked, shifting slightly, trying to get RJ to meet his gaze. “Did he and Camille escape?”

RJ opened his eyes, and nodded awkwardly. “Yes. He’s safe, they’re both training at the academy, Lily and Theo are teaching them from the beginning.”

Casey thought it over, and smiled crookedly. “I guess that’s not so bad. Glad I didn’t die for nothing.”

“No,” RJ agreed. “Not for nothing. That said, no more dying for a while.”

“Deal,” Casey said, grinning. “No more dying.”

 

Time, as ever, moved slowly. Days passed without any of the three noticing. Now and then bat-soldiers would bring themselves to attack, but RJ found they were particularly susceptible to spirit energy. They ran on dark magic, and spirit energy was a counter of the power of life itself. Casey supposed it made sense that it would be more effective than technology. Or perhaps RJ was just that strong. It didn’t matter very much in the end, as the net result was that they were mostly left alone, and he and his mother could continue eeking what little bright magic they could from their surroundings.

Seeing his mother again was strange. It had been so many years, and even when he’d visited her during the summer, it had always been on the Megaship or Aquitar or some other place, anywhere safer than KO35. Seeing her again in a demon dimension, his first sight of her being a pretense of Astronema seeking to destroy Bansheera, had been an odd combination of thrilling, terrifying, and amazing. Like the fact that the war was over, the fact of her presence took a while to fully compute in his mind.

But it happened that, when RJ was sleeping after having fought off another wave of soldiers, they were both awake and keeping watch. As always, they kept by the relative shelter of the pillars in the room, should a monster come in shooting it would give them a moment at least. As always, Karone held her staff across her legs, ready to use it though clearly not wanting to. But this particular silence, she looked up at him and said, “You grew up.”

“I became a Ranger,” Casey countered with a grin.

She threw back her head and laughed. “You did want to grow up to be one.”

Casey shook his head. “That was a long time ago.”

“Only about twelve years,” Karone countered. “That’s not even half my lifetime.”

“Yeah, well, you’re old.” Casey teased, memories of teasing Uncle Zhane on his birthday about how old he was, blissfully unaware of all the complications that losing two years had caused with his sense of age and identity. Simpler times, when cake was a thing they conjured from whatever was around them, and the most pressing problem Casey had was that there was literally no gift you could give someone who has a Megaship and saves the galaxy on a regular basis.

Karone smiled, walking over to where he sat, and looking him over intently. “Maybe,” she said, “but even I know better than to turn my back on my enemy in the middle of a fight.” She shifted him so she could look at his back, lifting the shredded shirt to reveal twisted scars from where Dai Shi’s attack had hit home. “Those look painful.”

“I hardly notice them,” Casey said, flinching as she poke one. “Until I move, anyway,” he amended.

“Hmm, as I thought.” She lay her hands on his back, and he could feel the warmth of magic where her hands pressed down.

“Shouldn’t we-“

“Hush,” she said, pushing his head down gently so she could more easily access his back. “Healing doesn’t take much power, and even if it did, there’s no point in creating a portal if all that keeps your wounds closed is where we are.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, clenching his teeth against the feeling of flesh knitting back together.

“Your robes,” she said patiently. “They were made of dark magic. When you stopped using your magic as much, they vanished. Likewise it’s only magic holding these together. That’s why you’re not getting stronger, it’s taking all your power just to be normal.”

“Oh.” Casey tried to relax into her ministrations, but it _itched._

“Stay still,” Karone scolded, violet light expanding from her fingers, until abruptly it stopped. She let out a slow breath, then tapped his back. “It’s not perfect,” she warned. “But it should hold.”

“Thanks,” Casey said, pulling down his shirt and gingerly testing his back muscles. He hadn’t realized how much pain he’d been in, but now that it was gone it was as if it had been raining and he’d just not noticed. “Wow,” he said under his breath.

Karone laughed again. “You’re a lot like Zhane,” she said fondly, picking up her staff again, blinking in surprise as sparks of magic flew out of it at her touch. Shaking it off, she turned her attention back to Casey. “He also tends to not realize he’s dying until the DECA announces he needs surgery.”

Casey laughed, “How’s he doing? It’s been years since I’ve heard anything from them.”

Karone shrugged. “They’re okay,” she said, “the fight against Emperor Mavro on KO35 isn’t going too badly, but a lot of other worlds have fallen. Not all of the worlds have Rangers protecting them.”

“How long has that been going on now?” Casey asked.

“On and off for about eight years,” Karone said, looking tired. “We repel the ships, then another wave comes. For the most part they seem to just want conquest, and we’re far enough along the boarder that our defiance isn’t taken too seriously. But it sounds like they’ve got eyes on Earth. Give it four or five years, they’ll be here too.”

Casey grimaced. “I saw in the grid, a few unusual power sets are activating.”

Karone nodded, gripping her staff tightly. “You’ll need it.” She said firmly. “But thankfully, it won’t be your battle alone.”

Casey snorted softly. “As if I wouldn’t fight.”

His mother looked at him sadly, her gentle face echoing years of fighting that hadn’t been there when he was a child. “The Armada will bring more death than you have ever seen.”

“Is it worse than the united alliance of evil?” he asked.

“No,” she admitted. “I caused more death than I have seen the Armada impart. But they have destroyed several worlds, and enslaved several others. In truth, the void left behind by the Zordon Wave is probably why they’re coming now, as all evil was purged and left space for more to come in.”

Casey lay a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Hey, we’ll defeat them, or if not us, other Rangers.”

Her smile back was a little watery, and she brought her hand up to his face, tracing his cheek with her palm. “You grew up,” she said again. “You’re a Ranger. When did that happen?”

“I don’t know,” Casey admitted. “It just, happened.”

She let her hand fall. “We’ll get home, Casey,” she said quietly. “When we do, let’s have a picnic with your friends. You can introduce me to everyone on Earth.”

“That’ll be an awfully big picnic,” Casey said, hugging his knees to his chest, feeling like a little kid again.

“That’s alright,” she said, eyes sparkling with laughter. “I’m sure your love’s pizza parlor can make enough for everyone.”

Her laughter at Casey’s red face was loud enough it woke RJ. He wasn’t sure whether to be relieved, or sad.

 

“What’s your last name?”

RJ glanced over at Casey from where he was going through a kata. “What?”

Casey stood up, folding his arms. “Your dad’s name is Master Finn, but he never told me his first name. And I’ve never heard you call yourself Finn, so what’s your last name?”

“I’m just, Robert James,” RJ said, shrugging. “Finn is a name my dad took on when he became a Master. An old tradition, but one that many of the Masters chose to follow.”

“You mean, change their names to match their spirit animal?” Casey asked. “I did think that was, a bit weird.”

“Exactamundo,” RJ replied, turning his attention back to his kata. “I didn’t want my dad to know what my spirit animal was, so, I just kept my name.”

“And Master Mao?” Casey asked.

“Mao means cat in Chinese,” RJ said, as he kicked out to the side and spun gracefully back as if facing an opponent. “He thought it sounded a little less blatant than Master Cat, and was a nice nod to his heritage.”

“Does this mean I’m supposed to change my name?” Casey asked, catching RJ’s hand as he punched forward.

“Only if you want to,” RJ replied, tilting his head and waiting for Casey’s next move.

With a bright grin, Casey began to spar in earnest, punching toward RJ’s neck, only to be deflected to the side. It was a familiar dance, a comforting feeling of normality to be practicing with him. There was no music in the background, as there would be in the loft. The light was thin, and the air a bit too warm. But the exchange of blow, dodge, duck, dance away, pull closer, all melded into a fine lined dance.

Though he knew Karone was probably watching, Casey felt very alone with RJ in the movement, a sparring match that neither truly needed to win. There was no world to save at the other end of the lesson, there was no particular need in the moment to be playing. If anything, they should have been saving their energy for when the demons attacked again.

They were relaxed enough, almost playing with each other, that both the wolf and the tiger came out and began padding around them as they sparred. Part of Casey wished they could stay in that moment, the simplicity of it, the closeness. But it had to end eventually, so when RJ punched out, he stopped it as he had so long ago, after his first real lessons with RJ. Twisting, he threw him into the air, where once again he spun around, laughing to land on his feet. For a moment they studied each other, then laughingly made their way over to where Karone was watching them with a warm smile on her face.

“We should get out of here soon,” she said, letting the moment fall away as gently as possible.

“Are you strong enough?” RJ asked.

She shrugged with her head, “We’ll find out.” She picked up her staff, her arm jolting with the power as she did so. “There’s enough energy, at least.”

RJ nodded. “Where will we portal to?”

Once again, she tilted her head in a shrug of sorts. “I didn’t have any firm plans. Wherever there’s a weak enough barrier between worlds.”

“Could we get to the Spirit World?” RJ asked, “Is a jump to another underworld easier?”

“Potentially,” she acknowledged. “We could use you as the focal point.”

“Hang on,” Casey said, stepping forward and putting a hand between them. “You’re planning on a blind portal to _the Spirit World?_ A directed portal was bad enough, I don’t want to jump into that place blind.”

“Casey,” RJ said, putting his hand on his shoulder, steadying him. “You’re a Pai Zhua Master now. You have nothing to fear from there.”

“And mom?” Casey asked. “Will she be safe there?”

“It’s sweet of you to worry, Casey,” Karone said, putting her hand on his other shoulder. “But I was the Princess of all Evil, and a member of the Lost Galaxy Rangers. I’ll be fine.”

Casey’s lips thinned. “Fine,” he said tightly. “But not until we’re sure we have enough power.”

The other two nodded their agreement. But a sense of unease remained lodged in Casey’s stomach.

 

The end of their stay in Bansheera’s hell dimension came sooner and more abruptly than any of them had expected. They had been resting, getting ready to start setting up their exit when footsoldier shrieks began to ring in the room again. With a sigh, RJ stood up to deal with it, only to be immediately thrown back by a blast from a much more powerful monster.

_“Spirit of the tiger!’_ Casey yelled, casting the monsters back a few paces, enough for RJ to stand again. It seemed the army of Bansheera had finally gotten themselves together, and were en-masse coming to reclaim the throne room. Casey didn’t particularly recognize them as creatures he’d interacted with during his time as their puppet. But that didn’t mean nearly as much as it might have, as his time down there had become something of a haze.

“Mom,” he called, “Might want to get on that portal, things are about to get messy.”

RJ stood next to him, fiddling with the morpher on his wrist. “Shall we?”

Casey grinned, tapping his sunglasses on. “Spirit of the tiger!”

“Spirit of the wolf!”

The fact that he had reattached their ability to morph made the difference of the battle. They were mostly defending Karone, keeping the monsters from interfering with her creation of the portal, which was in many ways more difficult than just fighting. They had to be far more careful to keep control of the battle, using their spirits to corral the enemy back toward the entrance.

“It’s ready!” Karone called to them after perhaps half an hour of them playing defense.

“Go!” RJ yelled at Casey, even as he activated his wolf beam.

Casey backed away, but waited till RJ joined him to move up to the portal. He could tell RJ was wryly amused by this, and he grabbed Casey’s arm, physically dragging him along. “Come on!”

The portal was purple, rather than the blue Casey was accustomed to. But it had the same chaotic lightning spitting at random in it. Karone was holding her staff at it, holding it steady with a look of desperate concentration. “Go!” she called. “I can’t keep it up for long.”

“What about you?” Casey asked, “can you hold it and get through?”

“I’ll be fine,” she replied, “if you hurry up and go!”

As Casey hesitated, she threw a significant look at RJ, who grabbed him and threw him into the inferno. For a moment he could see monsters rushing into the room, surrounding the two of them. But then he felt himself dissolve into the chaos of the portal.

 


	27. Chapter 27

27.

Appearing in the Spirit World wasn’t something Casey was particularly aware of. His first impression of it was, rather, waking to find himself surrounded by strange purple surroundings he hadn’t expected to see again in his lifetime. His back hurt, but more important he was very alone.

Shooting to his feet, he turned around to see the portal was still swirling behind him. Unstable, but still present. Without even thinking about it, he reached out with his power and pushed into it, stabilizing it for all he was worth. Long minutes passed, but surrounded by the core of Pai Zhua power Casey found he had almost infinite power to tap. When exactly the source of his power had shifted, he had no idea, but it didn’t matter, because he could hold the portal indefinitely.

As it turned out he didn’t need to, however, as RJ and Karone stumbled through the portal, followed by two monsters who quickly withered away in the environment that was hostile to any evil presence. With a sharp chop of his hand, Casey closed the portal, then sat down heavily with relief.

“What the hell, RJ?” he asked wearily.

“You stabilized the portal, didn’t you?” RJ replied, digging his palms into his eyes as if to clear the headache that portal travel inevitably left one with.

“Tell me that’s the plan next time!” Casey snapped.

“It wasn’t a plan,” RJ countered. “Just our best bet at the time.”

“Boys,” Karone said quietly, stopping their argument dead. “We’re all alive, that’s all that matters.” She stood up, brushing herself off. “Thank you for holding the portal, Casey.” She took a deep breath and turned to the forest of purple and grey trees. “Let’s rest a bit, then I assume we can portal home?”

“Yeah,” Casey said hoarsely. “I can open a portal.”

“Good,” she said. “I’m going to look around. You two sort yourselves out.”

 

They were quiet for a few minutes, then Casey sighed. “You scared me.”

RJ looked at him in surprise, eyebrows brushing his hairline. “Why would you be scared?”

“I thought you were trapped down there!” Casey snapped. “I thought you’d sacrificed yourselves to get me out of there!”

RJ opened his mouth as if to object, but Casey pointedly punched his shoulder, and he grimaced in acknowledgement. “Okay, so it’s something I _would_ do. But we both promised, no more dying anytime soon.”

“True,” Casey acknowledged. “Still.”

“I’m sorry we scared you,” RJ said, “I just didn’t see any other way.”

Casey sighed again, and ignoring logic and all the conversations they should be having, he shifted over and lay down in RJ’s lap. “This is nice.” He said, looking up at RJ’s baffled expression and poking his nose.

Exasperation mixed with affection tripped its way across RJ’s face, and he ruffled Casey’s hair. “You need a shower,” he informed Casey.

“Yeah, it’s been, since whenever I got down there.” Casey agreed.

RJ made a face. “Let’s see if we can find a pond,” he said, all but picked Casey up and wandering off into the trees.

 

They found a creek where they washed up, and rinsed their clothes as best they could. They did their best to avoid the silent tension, things unsaid were building up as time went on but neither were particularly in the mood to hash out their differences. Shared space and monsters had held them together through their fight with Dai Shi, and a shared sense of terror at losing the other was fresh in both of their minds.

But Casey could see in the lines on RJ’s face that he, too, was troubled by the thought of what would come next. However long they’d been in the hell dimension, whatever changes had happened in their absence, all of that could be dealt with. But where they would go from there, neither was quite sure.

“What will you do, when we get back?” RJ finally blurted, as they lay out their clothes to dry from what scrubbing they had been able to give them.

“I don’t know,” Casey replied, “I thought I’d keep making pizza for a while, if that’s alright?”

RJ nodded silently, his face smoothing slightly.

“I do need to go see Uncle Bulk though,” Casey said, stretching out on the ground, feeling the almost-sun warm him slightly. “Visit everyone who thought I was dead for so long.”

RJ sighed and lay on the ground near him. “I guess you never did get to go see them all.”

“Mmm,” Casey hummed agreement. “It’s weird to think about. I didn’t even know they were alive that long ago.”

“It’s been a long year,” RJ agreed.

“What will you do?” Casey asked.

“Same old,” RJ replied flippantly, “I have a restaurant to run, after all. Can’t leave it to my dad forever.”

“Think he could keep it running for another couple months?” Casey asked, throwing caution to the winds.

RJ turned his head to look at him, Casey saw from the corner of his eye as he kept his eyes toward the sky. “Why?” RJ asked, after a moment. “What do you have in mind?”

“I’d rather not face them alone,” Casey said simply.

RJ reached over and grabbed Casey’s hand. “I can do that,” he said.

They lay there in the shadows of the memory of the sun, drying and resting for one last moment, before they had to go back.

 

Portalling back wasn’t difficult, Casey had opened the portal on pure instinct the last time. With Karone’s advice he was able to make a much more stable connection, depositing them neatly in RJ’s loft, startling poor Flit out of RJ’s chair.

From there everything was a blur of reprimands and welcomes home, pizza and chaotically finding out they’d been gone for about half a year. Quite quickly, Casey found he just wanted to go back to being alone, in a quiet zone. But it was impossible, what with everyone having thought that they were dead. For while he had managed to get the entire Grid back online while bored in the darkness of Bansheera’s realm, the running theory among those who gave a damn was that RJ, Karone and Casey were probably dead at best. Another attempt to open a portal into the underworld had been attempted, this time with the help of Carter as well as Ryan. But without Karone’s power to stabilize the portal, the Mystics found they weren’t able to create a connection that could reliably be held.

So the world had moved on. Apparently against everyone’s warnings Jayden had started morphing again, and when no harm came to him their deaths became a much more evident conclusion, making their return all the more shocking.

The first day back was mostly Flit, Master Finn, Theo and Lily all gathering around them and making sure they were okay. The next day Andros, Zhane, Tommy, Jason, Dominic, Fran, Rocky, Adam, Cassie, Xander and Udonna descended on the restaurant, necessitating them closing for “staff development”.

The chaos blurred together, and while Casey was happy to see everyone, and grateful they were glad he wasn’t dead, he also felt a distinct separation. He felt out of step, as if some part of him were missing and he didn’t know where he might find it again so he could gel with them once more.

It was Zhane, in the end, who found him hiding in the loft, sitting defiantly in RJ’s chair, breathing as if he were having a panic attack, even though he wasn’t. He was sure that wasn’t quite it.

“Too much, isn’t it?” he said. “I had that for a while after I woke up.”

Casey looked up at him. “How long did it take to get better?”

Zhane shrugged, plopping down next to the chair with a crinkling sound from a bag of chips he’d clearly grabbed from the kitchen. “Longer than I’d like,” he said. “I still miss them, those two years I never had.”

“How did you cope?” Casey asked, slipping off the chair to join him on the floor.

“I had Andros,” Zhane said quietly. “He’d changed, so much, but he was so happy I was back that I couldn’t wish too much that I’d died.”

“But doesn’t that make it harder?” Casey asked, thinking about RJ and how strange it felt in his skin to be around his former Master, good friend and possibly boyfriend if they’d ever talk about it. He was glad to be back, but somehow nothing felt normal anymore.

Zhane laughed. “I know what you mean,” he said, opening the chip bag and munching on a couple thoughtfully. “I had to leave for a while not too long after waking up though,” he said, “so I was kept busy as I readjusted to being alive.”

Casey nodded, grabbing a handful of chips from the bag, which Zhane then snatched away with a playfully offended look. “I just, don’t know what to do.” Casey admitted, crushing a chip between his fingers rather than eating them.

“Well, what are your options?” Zhane asked.

“Anything really,” Casey admitted. “I could stay here, go traveling, visit everyone, vanish off into nothing again. I’ve thought of all the options and nothing feels right.”

“Hmm,” Zhane popped another handful of chips, crunching on them happily. “Well,” he said swallowing loudly. “If you want to fight it out of your system you can always join us in fighting it out with the Armada.”

“I thought about that,” Casey admitted. “But I don’t think I’d be much help as I am.”

Zhane punched his shoulder. “Good, because Astrea would kill me if you came along.”

Casey rubbed his shoulder, lips twitching at the old nickname Zhane had for Karone. “You never did tell me why you call her that.”

“We went on a date when she was Astronema,” Zhane announced as if it was the most natural thing in the world that he had dated his life-partner’s sister. “She told me her name was Astrea.”

“And Uncle Andros didn’t mind?” Casey asked incredulously.

Zhane’s smile turned a little sad. “He didn’t know,” he admitted. “We weren’t in the best of places, back then. His obsession with finding his sister overruled everything else, and while I was content to wait for him to remember I was _there,_ I also wanted to have companionship outside of the Rangers. Andros had a team of new friends, and I’d been left in the past for two years.” His eyes grew distant, boring into the wall. “So when I met a cute girl who was kind and beautiful, I figured, what could it hurt really?”

“Wow.” Casey said, leaning back against RJ’s chair heavily. “That’s, a lot.”

Zhane reached into the chip bag again, then with a sigh shoved it aside. “It was hard for him to remember I was alive,” he said wistfully, staring up at the ceiling. “He’d gotten so used to being alone that even the other four couldn’t remind him he wasn’t. I was too thrown by being replaced with four people to understand the depth of pain he was in. We were a bunch of broken kids.” He laughed, a sound that would have been far more bitter but for the time that had eased the ache of the past. “He was courting Ashley as well,” he said quietly. “Man I’d almost forgotten about that. They weren’t quite dating but, he certainly was jealous when I hung out with her.”

Casey blinked, unsure how to process that much information that was so, so opposite to the to reality he’d grown up with. “When did it get better?”

“I left,” Zhane said simply. “I walked away from the team and went to protect the survivors of KO35. They needed protection, I needed to get away, and while Andros wasn’t happy with my decision it gave me the space I needed to grow into the person I couldn’t for two years. Protecting an entire colony of people on my own wasn’t easy,” he glanced over at Casey, “but it was worthwhile. I was able to make friends among them, meet old friends again, and remember that I was a person in my own right outside of my relationship with Andros, however messed up it might be.” He glanced over at Casey. “Maybe it wouldn’t hurt you to go find yourself.”

Casey shook his head. “I’ve done the whole walk the world on my own thing,” he said quietly. “It sucked.”

“Then don’t do that,” Zhane replied. “Maybe go visit Tommy and help him with his ridiculous Master Morpher project.”

“His what?” Casey asked.

Zhane waved him off. “Or you could help Bulk keep tabs on Jayden. Or you could go see how Lauren is doing. Or help the dismantling of Alphabet Soup Inc.”

“What?” Casey asked again.

Zhane grimaced. “There was a mad scientist group that kept kids locked up for their brains, and one of the kids released a mad computer virus, Venjix or something, to get outside. Some rangers and Tommy’s friend Hayley managed to stop it, but, if we hadn’t there would’ve been worldwide destruction.”

Casey flinched, Venjix sounding hauntingly familiar. “There’s a section of the grid for that,” he said quietly. “It’s on its own, streamlined so all the grid’s power goes straight to it. I think if it had succeeded we’d all be dead.”

“Good that it didn’t then,” Zhane said pragmatically. “Doesn’t matter anyway, point is, the world is a big place. Lots of people you know would be thrilled to have you around.”

“They don’t know who I am, Uncle Zhane,” Casey protested.

Zhane sat up, and reached over, grabbing the bag of chips and offering it to Casey despite the crumbled chips in his hands. “We’ve all changed,” he said gently. “What matters is that we still care even if we don’t know who you are. We just want the chance to get to know you again, because we love you even if you’re not the kid we knew.”

Casey hesitated, then took a chip from the bag, and carefully chewed it. It was salty, he hadn’t expected anything else. But somehow the salt on his tongue, something so simple, made his eyes well up a little.

Smiling to himself, Zhane sat back again. “Did I ever tell you about how Astrea and I had a disastrous picnic?”

Casey laughed and shook his head, settling back to listen to the hijinks of the past, and let the present, for a moment, be washed away.


	28. Chapter 28

28.

In the end sorting through his future had to wait. While the party ended, Lily, Theo, Dominic and Fran were determined to stick around for a few more days to help him readjust. To his surprise, they acted as if the battle had only just ended, finally, after far too long. They baked pizza together, though Flit and Master Finn kept the usual traffic under control, and they did some fun training, dancing, and general goofing off.

He could tell in the back of their minds they had lists of things they should be doing running, but he could also tell that they weren’t quite prepared to call him alive and call it good just yet. Even odder, RJ hung back, working in the kitchen with his dad and only joining them when pulled into the fold.

Casey did his best not to question it too much. He would, after all, have plenty of time to hang out with RJ once the others had returned to their teaching duties at the school. Dominic and Fran had spent a great deal of money returning at short notice, and though RJ was helping them to head out again, Casey knew they’d be going less far, less long and less dramatically than Dominic’s original plans had been. Even with the additional months of saving money, it wasn’t as much. When he had tried to broach the subject, however, Dominic had been clear that he didn’t care. The world would still be there. Casey almost hadn’t.

Lily and Theo meanwhile, moved in each others spaces as they never had before. No longer dancing around each other, they were constantly touching, and dancing their way through the room, laughter dogging their movements. When Theo’s face would become too serious, Lily would simply flick his nose as she had clearly wished to for so long. Meanwhile Theo seemed to have found his balance. The fear of shame he wore like an uncomfortable pair of shoes seemed to have been swept aside in the time since Casey had last seen him. He was comfortable in his skin, and comfortable with Lily, and with both of them so happy it was hard for Casey to not feel just the tiniest twinge of jealousy. As much as he had acknowledged with RJ, neither had the luxury of quite the same comfort level. And to a degree he hadn’t realized before, he realized he wanted it. Badly.

So when RJ came up with some snacks, he grabbed his arm and dragged him over to the rest of the team. “They can manage,” he said firmly. “We need you here.”

RJ’s eyebrows rose up his forehead. “We?” he asked.

“ _I_ need you here,” Casey conceded. “Don’t make me beg.”

“Okay.” RJ agreed after a moments’ hesitation. He sat down on his chair’s arm, smiling around him at his friends, once students, always, _always_ team, and settled into the chaotic gathering.

 

RJ did, eventually, slip back downstairs to talk with his dad. Casey was tempted to follow, but before he could he found Lily standing in his way.

“You should trust him,” she teased gently, a look of concern lurking at the corners of her eyes.

Casey grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “I do,” he said, “I’m just curious.”

“Not afraid he’s running away from your again then?” Lily asked, taking his arm and leading him over to the stairs. Casey glanced over to where Theo had Dominic and Fran trapped in a rapid game of spit, and sighed to himself.

“It wouldn’t be surprising,” he pointed out, “has he ever not run away from me?”

“Not when it really matters,” Lily countered. “You told me he took you to the lake after he found out you’re not entirely human.”

“That had nothing to do with him though,” Casey pointed out. “RJ runs when it might force him to face things, not when it’s inherent defects in his students.”

That earned him a smack upside the head, but it was well worth it to see Lily laugh. “You make a terrible demon, Casey,” she said, “and that’s probably the most defective thing about you.”

“Ow.” He said reflexively, but grinned, glad to be back to their somewhat violent relationship.

“Shush, you’re fine,” Lily said, shoving his shoulder gently. “Fine, you want to know when he didn’t run away from you?”

“Sure,” Casey said easily.

“Do you remember when Dai Shi captured him?” Lily asked, pushing her hair back from her face. Her eyes went dark with the memory, staring at a point far away on the wall.

“Yeah,” Casey said quietly. “We were fools to think we could have beaten Dai Shi back then.”

“Funny thing is, we weren’t,” Lily said, snapping her attention back to the present. “We were cocky, but we knew we were good. We just didn’t know he’d had a new master as well.”

“Your point?” Casey asked, wanting to move beyond that memory.

“When we got him home he was badly hurt,” Lily said, “and instead of hiding to lick his wounds and heal, he let you take care of him.”

“He’d have let either of you do that too,” Casey pointed out.

“No he wouldn’t,” Lily said. “Theo offered on the way back and RJ insisted he was fine. I tried to argue and he brushed me off. That you managed to get him to stay where he was long enough to get even a band-aid on him surprised me.”

Casey laughed. “I just told him to stay there, and he did.”

Lily smiled and ruffled his hair. “My point is,” she said, “he trusted you, long before he started running away. He didn’t do that until he started really caring about us.”

“And what, that means he can’t trust us?” Casey asked skeptically.

“No,” Lily said standing and brushing off her pants. “It means the more he cares, the more afraid he is of needing people. He didn’t stay up here until you said you needed him. You kept him up here for a good few hours.”

“So, you’re saying I should just grab him and drag him around after me?” Casey said skeptically.

“I’m saying he cares,” Lily said, offering him a hand up. “So stop worrying that he doesn’t.”

Casey leaned back against the railing, trying to look casual instead of as if his strings had been cut. “I know he cares, Lily,” he said firmly. “But I can’t keep chasing after him whenever he thinks he’s a burden, or in the way, or whatever. Sooner or later I’ll have to wait for him to come to me, and I don’t know whether he will.”

“Of course he will,” Theo called over from where he was down to flipping cards frantically against Dominic. “If he thinks you need him? He’ll be there in seconds.”

“What if I just _want_ him there?” Casey challenged, wandering over towards them in a way that was absolutely of his own accord and nothing to do with the iron grip Lily had on his elbow.

“Then _tell_ him that and stop complaining,” Dominic bit out as Theo finished out before he could. Fran kissed his cheek to stop him from scowling.

“He’s not so bad,” she assured Casey. “I’ve been coming here since I was fifteen, and he’s always let me know he wanted me around. Maybe you just need to say it.”

“I guess,” Casey mumbled, even as he was dragged into a game of Egyptian Rock.

 

Monday came, and with it came time for Dominic and Fran to leave for their flight, and Lily and Theo to get back to classes and training. Casey found himself sorry to see them go, the emptiness of the loft suddenly heavy on his heart. He stood in the middle of the training floor, imagining ghosts of the past surrounding him. The laughter and companionship and teamwork of the past year—no, year and a half, suddenly loud in its absence.

“Empty, isn’t it?”

RJ’s voice came from behind him, and Casey turned to face him, a slight attempt at a smile on his face bit little more than that.

“Was it like this after?” he asked, knowing he didn’t need to say more than that.

“In a way,” RJ said, picking his way across the room, over to the training floor. “In a way it was worse,” he admitted, leaning against the weapons rack.

Casey didn’t bother feigning ignorance. “Because I was dead.”

“Because you weren’t,” RJ countered, walking over and taking his hands. “I knew you were still out there, I believed you were alive and I was sure that I would have to destroy you to save the power rangers.”

“Would it have been better if I’d died?” Casey asked before he could stop himself.

“No!” RJ said, squeezing his hands tightly. “No,” he repeated more quietly. “I wouldn’t ever want that.”

Casey accepted that, squeezing RJ’s hands in return. “Well I’m here now. Not dead, not not-dead either.”

They stood there, hands tightly held for a long moment. Neither wanted to break it with the obvious point that they still had no idea where to go from there. They didn’t know what the future would hold. They didn’t know what to do once the moment broke. So used to brushing off moments like it as impossible, to be ignored, finally turning toward the moment and holding it in their hands both metaphorically and literally felt almost like too much.

Then RJ smiled, and Casey felt a slightly giddy grin split his own face. He laughed, a little nervously, a little from the joy of having been brave enough to hold the moment.

“So, pizza?” RJ asked, tilting his head toward the stairs. “I’ve asked dad and Flit to hold the fort while we go on your ‘I didn’t die’ tour. But, we should probably eat before we leave.”

“I’d like that.” Casey agreed, and allowed RJ to drag him down to the kitchen, and even talk him into trying artichoke pizza.


	29. Chapter 29

Epilogue

It wasn’t perfect, but nothing ever is. Monster stragglers from other battles, and even a few Rinshi here and there would pop out of the woodwork to play. They would sigh, exchange a glance and leave the shop in Flit’s capable, if somewhat chaotic, hands, and help however they could.

Some days there were too many customers and Casey would ask himself if he really wanted to be at a pizza parlor and dojo for his entire life. Other times RJ would quietly lead him away from the kitchen, offering him college forms, already having tested him out of the academy with a diploma (which oddly enough, counted as a licensed institution, despite the many drawbacks to their particular educational process.) Some days he even considered it.

But other days he lost himself in teaching and cooking and practice with RJ, dancing through katas and coming up with new ones. As time passed they moved in each others space flawlessly, until customers became accustomed to their flirting and the virulent homophobes among them had gone.

Some nights there were nightmares, dreams of spirits being wrenched from their forms and turned into monsters and then destroyed. Dreams of one or the other fading away into nothing, of Casey destroying the world with his power, of RJ leaving and never knowing where he went or why. The dreams would pass, and each would wake to the other, gently brushing away the shadows brought on by memories mixed with fears.

And someday they would get a call, from Bulk, from Jayden, from Tommy, and Casey would go to help fix the grid, or design a weapon that could sink a space armada. Someday Casey would fall back, screaming as all the power of the morphing grid was channeled through them, overloading his senses completely, waking to RJ holding him close and checking to make sure he wasn’t dead.

It wasn’t perfect, it never could be. But it was an adventure, and an outcome that was good enough. Because sometimes being loved, is enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this nonsense. Let me know if you want me to attempt to play in the realms of the after series, or anything else. I had fun writing this, it took years but was well worth it.


End file.
